Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8, NIV
In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming noticed something in his lab that others might have overlooked. When he returned from vacation, he saw that mold had contaminated one of his petri dishes. Instead of just throwing it away as ruined, Fleming observed that bacteria wouldn't grow near the mold. This careful observation led to the discovery of penicillin, which has saved millions of lives. Fleming saw significance in what most would have considered a failed experiment because his trained eyes recognized what others would have missed.
Jesus made an amazing promise about seeing God. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Many people think this just means we'll see God in heaven someday. But Jesus wasn't only talking about the future. He was saying that people with pure hearts, those focused completely on God, develop special "spiritual eyes" to see Him at work right now, all around them.
Having spiritual eyes doesn't mean seeing strange visions. It means recognizing God's fingerprints in ordinary moments that others miss. It's noticing how He provided exactly what you needed at the right time. It's seeing His love shown through a friend's kindness. It's recognizing His guidance in a "coincidence" that solved your problem. These aren't magical experiences. They're moments of awareness that God is actively involved in your life.
Our heart's condition affects what we can see. Think about wearing really dirty glasses - everything looks blurry and unclear. The glasses don't change what's actually there, but they change what you can see. In the same way, when our hearts are cluttered with wrong motives, selfish desires, or divided loyalties, our spiritual vision gets foggy. We miss seeing God even when He's working right in front of us.
God isn't hiding from us. We're just often looking in the wrong places. Many people expect God to appear in dramatic, spectacular ways. But He usually works through ordinary things: a helpful conversation, a beautiful sunset, a timely message in a song, or a moment of unexpected peace. Just as Fleming didn't discover penicillin through a dramatic flash of insight but through carefully observing something ordinary, we often find God in regular moments when our hearts are tuned to notice Him.
Spiritual eyes develop over time through practice. Just as Fleming trained his scientific observation skills over many years, we get better at seeing God by looking for Him daily. Reading the Bible helps us understand how God typically works. Prayer cleans the "glasses" of our heart. Sharing stories with other believers helps us recognize patterns of how God shows up in people's lives. The more we practice looking, the more we see.
Godseekers, God is active in your life right this moment, whether you notice Him or not. The question isn't whether God is present and working but whether your heart is pure enough to see Him. Jesus isn't asking you to try harder to imagine God. He's inviting you to clean and focus your heart so you can recognize what's already happening. When your heart becomes more completely His, your spiritual vision becomes clearer, and suddenly you'll find yourself saying, "God was here all along, and now I can see Him!"
Prayer
Dear God, please purify my heart so I can see You more clearly. Open my spiritual eyes to notice Your work in my everyday life. Help me recognize Your presence in ordinary moments that I might normally miss. Thank You that You're not hiding from me but are active and involved in my world. I want to see You more clearly today. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Personal Reflection
- When was the last time you recognized God working in an ordinary moment of your day?
- What might be clouding your spiritual vision right now, making it harder to see God?
Step of Faith
Today, I will take five minutes to look for evidence of God's presence in my normal routines and write down at least one way I noticed Him working.
