Heart and hands

Our pastor's message on Sunday was on the importance of purifying our heart. His text was Psalm 24 where the Psalmist said that he who has 'clean hands and a pure heart' will receive the blessing from the Lord. He said our hands and heart work in tandem.

He said hands symbolized the actions that we take. But the actions are hands do is dictated by our hearts. Our hearts act first, then the hands follow through. We lust first, then our hands follow through. The thought begins in the heart and is followed through by the hands.

Our hands, or our actions, are a manifestation of what's already in our hearts. If your heart has vengeance, your hands will carry it out. Conversely, if your heart has forgiveness, the hands will manifest that also.

The key to Christian living is purifying your heart. We must clean our hearts. That's why Jesus told us that we should go and be right with our brothers, to cleanse our hearts, before we can come and worship Him.

Another way to look at this is our hands symbolize the works that we do. James emphasizes the importance of works. He says that faith without works is dead. Though it seems to contradict Paul's justification by faith, I think it confirms it. The important thing to remember is that the sequence must be correct. We must have a pure heart first, a heart in love with Jesus, before our hands can get to work. If we rely only on our works, then eventually our hands will become tired. But if our hands are working in response to the love in our hearts, they will never become tired.
Our hands show the world what's already in our hearts. Be blessed.