''Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.’' Matthew 5:8
Do YOU LONG TO KNOW GOD BETTER? Do yOU
Struggle with doubt? Do you ever wish you had more faith?
If so, you are not alone.
I have been in the ministry long enough to know that even people who have been Christians all their lives have to deal with doubt at one time or another. Many committed Christians go through “dry” times when God seems absent or far away. And there are countless people inside and outside the church—even some who claim to be agnostic or even atheist—who really want to believe, but who somehow have trouble developing a strong faith.
If this is your struggle—to have more faith, to conquer doubt, to know God in a real, personal, life-changing way—then this Be-Happy Attitude is for you: “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus said, “for they shall see God.”
But what does it take to become “pure in heart”? I would like to suggest four steps that can really help: (1) Wise up. (2) Clean up. (3) Give up. (4) Take up.
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WISE UP!
If you could collect the smartest intellectuals from around the world, bring them together, and ask them one question, “How many of you believe in God?” several hands would go up. On the other hand, many hands would go up if you asked, “How many of you do not believe in God?”
If you divide the smartest, most educated minds of the world into believers and unbelievers, there would be quite a few in each group. That is because faith in God is not a matter of intelligence. Faith is not a result of intellect, any more than it is a result of ignorance.
Faith is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of instinct. Even science has recently confirmed the power of innate, inbred instinct. A notable example is the recent experiment by Dr. Maurice, a scholar and a student of the weaver bird of South Africa. This interesting little bird makes its nest out of reeds, lines it with silky grass, and does what no other bird does— he makes a hole in the bottom of his nest through which he makes his entrance.
Dr. Maurice, trying to test the strength of instinctive drives, took two eggs from a nest in South Africa, transported them out of the country, and incubated them until they hatched. He
successfully raised the birds in cages through four and even five generations. None of these birds ever had any exposure to nests with a hole in the bottom of it.
Dr. Maurice took the fifth generation of weaver birds, brought them back to South Africa, and released them in their natural habitat. The birds found reeds, immediately lined their nests with silky grass, and then made holes in the bottom. Incredible!
There are mysteries in anthropology and natural science—mysteries that can only be described as instinctive. These instincts are powerful; they can propel swarms of bees, herds of whales, schools of salmon, flocks of geese thousands of miles. These instincts are also enduring; animals who are born with their peculiar instinctive modes of behavior have them as long as their species is in its native habitat.
Someone once said, “When God wants to make sure a truth is never abandoned or aborted. He will put it in the instinct.” When God wanted to ensure that the need for religion would never die. He put it within the human breast. That is why humankind throughout history has been drawn to a belief in a God. Even the aborigines of Australia and the headhunters in New Guinea believe in a god or gods. They feel the instinctive urge within their souls to
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know and worship something greater than themselves.
Instinct. How else do you explain Bill Murray, son of the militant atheist, Madelyn Murray O’Hare? He was raised and indoctrinated in atheism, and he worked with his mother for years, but he still had a life-transforming experience that turned him into a believer in God.
If you are struggling with the idea of faith, wise up! Realize that God has planted faith within the instinct of every healthy human being. Just as a healthy bird instinctively takes to the trees, just as a healthy fish swims in the water, so the healthy human being is inclined to be religious. However, just as animals lose some of their innate drives when taken from their natural habitats, so man loses his innate ability to believe in a loving God when he is away too long from positive, faith-producing environments. That is why it is so important to carefully surround ourselves with positive,
believing, healthy people.
Religion is a sign of health. Skepticism is a mark of illness. Unbelief is abnormal; belief is normal. For the normal human being will joyfully embrace faith and belief, but the cynical doubter cannot believe and will not believe until he can be healed of the negative memories that plague him and block him from his innate ability to see God.
Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, a noted psychiatrist and a dear friend of mine, was for twenty-five years a very strong agnostic. Then one day, without warning, his life totally changed, and he became a believer in God. I asked him once when we were together, “Dr. Jampolsky, in the years before you were converted, what did you think about people who went to church?”
He said, “For twenty-five years I thought people who went to church, prayed, and believed in God were not normal. I thought they were really kind of sick. Now I see that I was completely wrong. They were normal; I was not.”
CLEAN UP!
If the first step toward developing more faith is to wise up—to realize that belief is instinctive, normal, and healthy—then the second step is to clean up any negative emotions in your life that might be blocking your faith and keeping you from “seeing” God.
There was a time when my children were little that I was going through some torturing times with the development of my church. I had colossal burdens and pressures. And although I was going through the motions of being a pastor, a husband, and a father, my heart was not
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really in any of these. It was blocked by despair, depression, and fear.
Often during this time I would come home from the office, sit in a chair, pick up the paper, and read column after column without really being aware of anything I had read.
My little boy would come and talk to me. And I’d respond, “Yes, Bobbie.” But I wouldn’t really hear him.
One day my wife and I were walking through the garden. I remarked, “Honey, the roses are blooming.” To my surprise, she replied, “They’ve been blooming for three months.”
It was not until I cried out to God and asked Him to release me from my anxieties and worries that I was able once more to feel His presence. Like a finger pressing into my brain. He touched me, and I felt the fear and the despair drain out of me. In its place flowed peace, joy, and hope, despite the obstacles that still lay ahead.
When God touched me, my ears were opened. I could once again hear what my family was saying to me. My eyes were opened. I could once again see the beauty that God had created. I could even see possible solutions for the overwhelming problems I was facing.
Worry, anxiety, pressures, frustrations—all of these can cause us to be blinded to the real
world all around us. When we take this one step further, you can see how easy it would be for some emotional blockage to keep us from being aware of the presence of God.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” I believe Jesus is teaching that if we have emotional and spiritual health we will be able to “see” God, to believe in Him.
Dear Dr. Schuller:
I must write to tell you—when you spoke of the seed of grass that had been tossed from a vase and wedged uncomfortably in a crack in the sidewalk, to be trampled under the boots of men—well, that was my life, my early childhood.
My parents were well bred. Money and fame was their God. But I was never able to trust their love. Consequently, I was never able to believe in a loving father. However, I became aware that Christians were happy. I was not. I knew that my personality was disjointed and disconnected.
One day, after hearing your sermon when you said to put God first, others second, and yourself third, I offered God everything I had. I offered Him my money, my time, myself. I said, “God, I’m willing to be Yours if You’ll help me.”
The following Thursday happened to be Maundy Thursday. I noticed a little church with a sign saying, “Communion Today.” I went in. I took the communion and, as I did, I asked God to make me into a mentally healthy person so that I would be able to be a believer. At that
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moment, it all happened. 1 felt cleansed of all the
evil 1 had carried with me since childhood. 1 cannot tell you how happy and relieved 1 feel.
Then the writer of this letter added this very perceptive and analytically profound postscript: “P.S. It is a tremendous achievement for the emotionally disturbed person to trust God!”
How right she is! It is a difficult task for a person who has emotional difficulties to become a healthy believer in God. And so I ask you:
® Is it possible that somewhere in your subconscious there lurks hostility toward your father or your mother?
® Is it possible that you have within your subconscious some negative feeling toward your family, your friends, your business associates or competitors?
® Have you ever been hurt by someone who never came back to apologize to you?
® Do you have a secret that you have never shared with any other living human being—about something you have done, are doing, or are thinking about doing, which is either illegal or immoral?
® Have you suffered grief and heartache, and did your prayers seem unanswered?
® Do you feel inferior to others, and do you have trouble loving yourself?
There are countless questions I could ask. Let
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me just say that if you answered “y^s” to any one of these questions, you are not totally free of negative emotions. And as long as you have negative emotions within yourself, then listen carefully: Don’t trust your doubt. Doubt is a subconscious defense mechanism fabricated by an insecure, guilty, or troubled mind to keep us from believing in a God who might make demands upon us we’re not prepared to meet.
Negative emotions block faith because they hinder us from confronting our need for God. It’s like the overweight person who won’t step on the bathroom scale or the person with overdue bills who won’t look in the mailbox. When we most need help, negative emotions can keep us from turning to the One who could help us most; they block us from believing and seeing God’s plan for our lives.
Now you know why Jesus was such a powerful believer! Jesus knew God. Jesus Christ had no emotional blockages! He had no selfish ambitions, no greed, no jealousies, no hatred, no self- pity, no selfish griefs. Emotionally, He was constantly positive. He was “pure in heart.”
So if there is within your personality some resentment, some hostility, some guilt, some fear or worry, find it. Get rid of it. You will be surprised to find how much your faith will improve. How natural it will seem to you to be religious—as natural and normal as breathing.
I love a story I once heard about Leonardo da Vinci. According to the legend, some lads were visiting the famous artist. One of them knocked over a stack of canvases. This upset the artist because he was working very quietly and sensitively. He became angry, threw his brush, and hurled some harsh words to the hapless little fellow, who ran crying from the studio.
The artist was now alone again, and he tried to continue his work. He was trying to paint the face of Jesus, but he couldn’t do it. His creativity had stopped.
Leonardo da Vinci put down his brush. He went out and walked the streets and the alleys until he found the little boy. He said, “I’m sorry, son; I shouldn’t have spoken so harshly. Forgive me, even as Christ forgives. I have done something worse than you. You only knocked over the canvases. But I, by my anger, blocked the flow of God into my life. Will you come back with me?”
He took the boy back into the studio with him. They smiled as the face of Jesus came quite naturally from the master’s brush. That face has been an inspiration to millions ever since.
If there is a negative emotion within you that is blocking you in your relationship with God, clean upl “Blessed are the pure in heart, for
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they shall see God.” Here are some exercises to help you:
(1) Think of some hidden hurt in your past and pray a forgiving prayer for the person who was the cause of your hurt. C. S. Lewis said it: “We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it!”
(2) Think of someone of whom you are jealous, and pray for that person’s continued prosperity.
(3) Think of someone you’ve hurt, cheated, insulted, slighted, snubbed, or criticized. Call him or her. Invite this person to have dinner or lunch with you. Confess to him or her your un-Christian attitude, and ask for forgiveness.
(4) Think of some neglected cause, project, or person. Surprise yourself with a streak of generosity! Really give a lot—of yourself and of your substance.
(5) Pray a totally honest prayer to Christ. You doubt God? Tell Him so. He’ll still love you, even if you don’t believe in Him! (God specializes in loving sinners!)
Perhaps you read the amazing story of the young Air Force man who is alive today because of the complete change of blood in his body. He had hepatitis and his liver was nearly useless. Doctors drained every cell of blood from this man’s body and substituted a saline
solution. They lowered his body temperature to eighty-five degrees. For eight or ten minutes he was, for all practical purposes, physically dead. The doctors then flushed the saline solution out and filled his veins and arteries with new, healthy blood. A medical miracle had occurred—a human life had been saved. Amazing!
Jesus said that if you want to see God, you have to be bom again. Another way of saying this is that you need a spiritual “blood” transfusion. The old negative blood is drawn out. Then the new spirit of Jesus Christ, like new blood, flows through your entire nervous and emotional system, and you become a new person! “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” Through the Holy Spirit, you receive “new spiritual blood” in every cell. If doctors could give new life to an Air Force man, just imagine what God could do inside your mind!
Do you want a life-changing experience with God? Clean up—wash your mistakes away through Christ’s grace. Accept the forgiveness of Jesus. Let Him clear up the negative, emotional blockages.
GIVE UP!
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Do you want a life-changing experience with God? If so, wise up! Realize it’s instinctive and normal to be religious. Clean up! Wash your
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mistakes and negative emotions away through Christ’s grace. And the third step is: Give up— anything that may be hindering you. Perhaps there is something in your life that you will have to relinquish, with God’s help. If it is something that is blocking the birth of real faith, then you may have to give it up. If it is a choice between living and a bad habit—choose life.
Many years ago I officiated in the marriage ceremony of a Hollywood actor, Glenn Ford. Waiting for the ceremony to begin, we chatted in a back room of his home. Gathered in that room were Glenn Ford; his best man. Bill Holden; Frank Sinatra; Jimmy Stewart; and John Wayne.
“You know, you should quit smoking, Francis,” John Wayne said to Sinatra, who smiled.
Before he could answer, Jimmy Stewart asked Wayne, “When did you give up smoking, Duke?”
I’ll never forget his answer: “When I decided it was more important to live than to smoke.”
We can find the strength to give something up when it threatens something that is precious to us—such as life.
Dr. Kenneth Cooper, bestselling author and founder of a world-famous fitness center in Dallas, Texas, is an authority on health and fitness, the man who first made aerobics a household
word. In my opinion, Dr. Cooper is responsible more than any other single person for contributing to the physical fitness movement that is going on in the United States and around the world. Several years ago I interviewed him on The Hour of Power, and before my national television audience the following dialogue took place concerning negative habits and how to give them up:
K.C.: “There are at least fifty million overweight Americans with a total of one billion pounds above their ideal weight. I hope we don’t sink off the face of the earth with statistics like that. It was an indictment of an overweight society when they renovated Yankee Stadium a few years ago. They had to reduce the seating capacity by nine thousand seats, because they couldn’t change the overall dimensions of the stadium but they had to increase the width of each seat from nineteen to twenty-two inches—to accommodate the modern American’s posterior! We have a lot of obesity in America.”
R.S.: “So, are you saying that we need to exercise and cut back on our eating?” K.C.: “Absolutely. Obesity is rampant in our country, and obesity is accompanied by everything from high blood pressure to
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diabetes to heart disease and even depression.”
R.S.: [I felt that I had to toot my own horn just a little.] “You know, a few years ago I cut out white bread, cookies, and sugar. I only take fresh fruit for dessert.”
K.C.: “Bob, without question, you’re doing yourself a lot of good. We recommend restricting cholesterol, cutting down on sweets, and concentrating on natural foods—on fresh vegetables, fruit, and lean meat. That’s what we as American people need to do. In our Aerobics Center we encourage people to check with their physician first; to have their blood analyzed to find out what their cholesterol level is, what their triglycerides are, what their fasting blood sugar level is. From that they can be given specific guidelines as to what they should do to change their diets to improve their statistics.”
R.S.: “You also have strong feelings about tobacco and smoking?”
K.C.: “Most definitely! The worst health hazard that we have in America today is cigarette smoking. Let me cite some quick statistics: If you smoke more than one pack of cigarettes a day, you’re three times more likely to die of a heart
attack than the nonsmoker or the former cigarette smoker. But the exciting thing is that when the cigarette smokers stop smoking, in as short a period of time as six months he or she can drop back into the low-risk category for heart disease. That’s why I strongly believe that the dramatic improvement in the health of our people in the past fifteen to twenty years has been due to the fact that thirty million have quit smoking cigarettes since 1964.”
R.S.: “Cigarettes are, as they say, ‘nails in the coffin’?”
K.C.: “They really are. And remember, too, recent studies show that for every cigarette you smoke, you increase the likelihood of lung cancer by that much. For example, if you smoke five cigarettes a day, you are five times more likely to die of lung cancer. If you smoke thirty cigarettes a day, you’re thirty times more likely to die of lung cancer than the nonsmoker. The statistics just go up and up.”
R.S.: “But how can people give up smoking? How can they lose weight?”
K.C.: “I recommend first of all that they start an exercise program. For some reason, that gives them a discipline they didn’t
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have before. All is possible through God. Some will be successful on their own, but many others will succeed only when they ask for God’s help.”
“Blessed are the pure in heart.” It is always wise to give up anything that you think might be blocking you from a clear relationship with God.
I witness to you that the times I felt closest to God were the times when I gave up something I desired very much. My experience proves the words of our Lord, who said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross and follow me.”
Recently, with my doctor’s enthusiastic approval, I went on a fast. For six days I had no solid foods. During this time, I sometimes felt hungry, but I also felt especially close to Jesus Christ.
I remember the first time I began tithing, giving God ten percent of my earnings. Boy, was it tough. I had to give up something, but I did feel closer to God.
Years ago, I smoked. You must understand that there were no cultural biases against smoking in the community where I grew up. In my childhood church, all good Dutch preachers smoked cigars or pipes. However, I became convinced that, for me, smoking was not right, and
I gave the habit up. It was difficult, but once I had quit, I felt great.
You see, fasting and tithing and giving up smoking were all part of the principle of doing something difficult with God’s help and making it a success. It was an adventure of walking by faith which gave God a chance to prove Himself to me. And He did!
Now, please understand that I am not saying you have to quit smoking or lose weight before you can “see God.” But I am suggesting that becoming “pure in heart” may mean you have to give up something you like very much. It may be money. It may be smoking. It may be overeating. It may be alcohol or other habitforming drugs. It may be extramarital sex. I do not know what it is that is blocking you from a close relationship with God. I don’t want to know what it is; that is between you and Him. But make it a spiritual adventure and you will have an experience with God. Many people have a low faith level simply because they are scared to stick their necks out with God. Try it!
TAKE UP!
Dr. Cooper suggested taking up an exercise program as the first step on the road to better health. The same principle applies to our spiri-
tual walk. To be pure in heart, we need to take up something:
® a dream ...
• a project...
@ God’s call to do something great!
After all, what does “pure in heart” mean? Does it mean that we are sinless? Of course not. If that’s what it meant, Jesus would have been giving all of us an assignment that was doomed to fail. I’m not sinless. You are not sinless. None of us are entirely sinless.
If Jesus is not requiring us to be sinless, then, what does He mean when He says, “Blessed are the pure in heart”?
As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, a pure field is not one that has merely been plowed so that it’s free of weeds. No, a pure field is a productive one—where corn, pineapples, or oranges are being grown.
The same is true in our lives. We can believe in God, we can see Him, we can catch His vision for our lives, we can feel His spirit moving in our lives when we:
# wise up,
0 clean up,
® give up, and finally
® take up God’s call to do something great for Him.
There is one consuming cause that I can offer you—the cause of Christ in our world today.
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God is alive, and Christ is alive, and there are millions who are finding Him. If you have not found Him, you have the greatest experience of your life still coming! I offer to you Jesus Christ as your cause.
Take up a “cause,” and it’s easy to give up “things.”
A young married couple living in a cheap little apartment are happy. Why? Because they have a cause—their new married love.
An artist lives in a musty attic—ill-fed, ill- clothed. But he is happy! Why? Because he has a cause to live for ... his art. He does not need many material things.
A research scientist who comes to his classroom in baggy pants, with an unshaven face and no tie, isn’t interested in expensive suits. He is lost in a cause—that of research and study.
You can get by without a lot of things if you have something great to live for. Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33).
Do you want to have a real experience with God? Wise up. Clean up. Give up. And take up the cross of Jesus Christ. God is offering to you a cause—Christ’s cause. Jesus needs you.
Christ has no hands but our hands to do His
work today. He has no feet, but our feet to lead
men on the way.
He has no tongues but our tongues to tell men how He died. He has no help but our help to draw men to His side.
It is that simple. Have you given your heart to Him? Maybe you are a Christian and have accepted Christ, but God is not real enough to you. Maybe there is something in your heart that needs cleansing. Maybe you have to give up something, or take up something.
I told you in the previous chapter about Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa left the shelter and the security of the convent with only a few rupees in her pocket. She went out into the poorest section in the vast city of Calcutta. She found a woman being eaten by rats while still alive, and she dragged this woman to a hospital. That is how she began her life work. Today, she is dedicated to helping the poorest of the poor. Those who have met her say she has a radiant, God-filled face. No wonder ... listen to her!
She writes: “Joy. Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love. God loves a cheerful giver. She gives most who gives joy. The best way to show my gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy. A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart that is burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget for one moment the joy of Christ risen.”
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She goes on: “We all long for heaven, where God is. But we have it in our power to be in heaven with God right now, at this very moment. But to be at home with God now means loving the unlovely as He does, helping the helpless as He does, giving to those in need as He gives, serving the lonely as He serves, rescuing the perishing as He rescues. This is my Christ. This is the way I live.”
God is so real. He will be real to you, too, if you take Christ into your heart. Adopt Mother Teresa’s goal to “do something beautiful for God.” Look around you now to help someone who is hurting. Do it for Christ’s sake.
If you want a life-changing experience with God, a dynamic faith, here’s how you can get it. Ask God to take your life, to heal the subconscious memories. Ask Jesus Christ to forgive you for your secret sins. Then ask Him to take your life and show you how you can be a part of something beautiful for God! For faith combined with good works makes God come alive within you.
Take a look at a fountain pen. The ink flows through it to form words—communication. If you simply give your life to Him today. He can flow through you. He can make your heart right. He can clear the rubbish from your life and replace it with a holy dream! And you’ll come to realize that the burning desire, the con-
suming dream, the strong sense of destiny—yes, all of this inner drive—is the very life of God surging in your soul! Your dream is God within you!
It is a decision! To become a believer! And decide that a positive mental attitude—a Be- Happy Attitude—requires that you let the faith flow free.
Be-Happy Attitude *7