Are you more than 99.4% pure?

Have you ever seen the ads for Ivory soap proclaiming that their 
products are 99.4% pure? According to whom? 

This morning in my quiet time with God, He spoke to me about
what purity really means. There is more to it than you may think.
The verse He brought to my attention is found in the book of James.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated  full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17

Look at the fruits of the wisdom from above. It is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated  full of mercy and food fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.  

Pure first. There can be nothing impure in a Christian's life. 99.4% is not good enough. God needs us to be 100% pure in our thoughts, motives and actions. He is talking about more than just sensual purity, but in every aspect of our lives as believers. Bitterness is impure. Anger is impure. So is unkindness, selfishness, gossip and backbiting. 

 You cannot have impurity  and live a peaceable life. There cannot be anything in the life that has even a taint of anything. It does not take much poison to kill a person. It only takes a little bit of gossip to ruin someone's reputation that they have spent years to build. 

God's wisdom is never one of revenge--eye for an eye-- wisdom like the world gives. It is first pure. Without purity, the stream does not flow as it should. The waters flowing from out of you will be bitter and undesirable.   Make sure to keep your wellspring clean and pure from all that will defile you. 

From purity flows the other attributes, ie. peace. If a person is not pure, they will not be at peace with themselves or anyone else. The irritating things in a life come from impurities, things that can cause infections and wounds. Guard your heart from the impurities of unrest, bitterness and all ungodliness.

Don't give in to pettiness and nit-picking. That is another indication of an impure life. People are not satisfied with what they have find it easy to be unkind to those who have what they don't have. Don't go that way. When someone is unkind that does not give you a license to retaliate and be like they are. My husband told me once,  "Don't  wrestle with a pig because you get dirty and the pig likes it."  In other words, if you are bent on nit-picking and fault-finding, then it will come back on you and taint your reputation making you way less than the 100% purity criteria for the Heavenly Father. 

Instead of retaliating with unkindness, go about the business of focusing on do good works, being kind and fair, pure and true. That alone will keep you out of trouble and away from that which will pollute you mind.  

I have a reminder that is taped to the side of my file cabinet in the office. It has such good advice. I am unsure of its source, but it has some profound thoughts.

Keep about the work that God has given you,
Don't flinch because the lion roars.
Don't stop to stone the devil's dogs.
Don't fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbits.
Do your work.......

Don't worry about others. That is God's job. You follow Him. You listen to His voice. He will always be right. He will always give you the best advice. He will always be what you need. Trust Him to do everything else that you need.

Thanks for reading.

Donna