Is Your Heart Clean and Aligned with God's Will?

But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile. (Mark 7:20-23; cf. Luke 6:45; Genesis 6:5).

Jesus teaches that your desires, thoughts, and actions that oppose God's will and defile you arise from within your heart rather than from external influences. That's not to say that external influences cannot tempt or test you but, rather, it is what is in your heart that determines whether you recognize these desires, thoughts and actions as being against God's will and, if so, what you do about it.

Generally, the term heart denotes your soul—your spiritual center where you encounter God—and all of its faculties or dimensions such as your intellect and its capacity to reason, discern, and judge; your emotions, imagination, and your deepest feelings; your moral center where sin—acting against God's will— or God's grace take root; and your self-will through which you intentionally choose to act or not act.

In essence you must first desire, surrender to, allow, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit to clean or purify your heart of any vices, inordinate desires and attachments to material possessions, to power or control, prestige, pleasures, or any other addictions, behaviors, or actions that enslave, defile, diminish or limit you, and to transform you to align with God's will for you to become the best version of yourself—a person who is ever-growing in more deepening and loving relationships with God, others, yourself, and all of creation. Pray to God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). For, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8)(NRSV).

We invite you to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to clean your heart and to help align you with God's will. May we suggest that you begin by honestly reflecting on where you are now in your life's journey, and to fervently desire and humbly pray to the Holy Spirit to show and guide you as to what vices, inordinate desires and attachments, or any other addictions, behaviors, or actions enslave, defile, diminish, or limit you, or affect you from having loving and meaningful relationships, or prevent you from following God's will and becoming the best version of yourself that God intends.