God Wants our Heart to be Soft, Pure, Loving, and at Peace: we Cooperate with Him!

As the One who sanctifies us, the inner operating God works to deal with our heart so that His life may flow freely in us, and we need to cooperate with Him in living a holy life for the church life, for God wants our heart to be soft, pure, loving, and at peace.

Oh Lord, our heart! We give our heart to You! Operate in our heart to make it soft, pure, loving, and at peace! May our heart be true to You, always open to You! Flow in us freely and flow out of our being as many rivers of living water! Amen!

We believers in Christ have received God’s mercy to repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, and at the time of our regeneration, God gave us a new heart to love Him and a new spirit to contact Him.

He took away our heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh to be full of feeling toward Him, and He renewed our spirit by adding Himself as the divine life to our spirit. Praise the Lord!

However, this is just the beginning of our Christian life. Now that our heart is new and our spirit is also new, we need to continue to be renewed in our heart and have an exercised spirit.

Our heart is so changeable; today it is up and tomorrow it is down, and even worse, during the same day it is happy and then very sad.

Our heart is changeable, so it is blamable; therefore, we need to be established blameless in holiness by God.

How does this happen? How can our heart be established blameless in holiness?

It is by the continual renewing of the sanctifying Spirit; the Spirit in and with our spirit works to sanctify us not only by separating us unto God but even more, by saturating us with God’s holy element and essence to make us as holy as He is holy. Wow!

God wants our heart to be established, built up, in the state of being holy, the state of being separated unto God and saturated with God.

God doesn’t want to merely change us outwardly and improve our behaviour until we do things the same as Christ and even speak the same as Christ.

He wants to work Himself into us by His continual, fine dispensing until we are constituted with Him and live Him out spontaneously.

He has come into our spirit, and our spirit is life because of righteousness. But from our spirit, He wants to spread into our soul to make our soul life!

Today we want to cooperate with Him. In order for us to be those who are being sanctified in living a holy life for the church life, we must cooperate with the inner operating of the One who sanctifies us by dealing with our heart (Heb. 2:11; Psa. 139:23-24).

We need to cooperate with the Lord by dealing with our heart. May we ask the Lord to search us, try us, know our anxious thoughts, and see if there’s any harmful way within us, so that He may lead us on the eternal life.

May we pray and cooperate with the Lord to deal with our heart so that we may have a heart that is soft, pure, loving, and at peace. Oh Lord, our heart!

God Wants our Heart to be Soft: He Softens our Heart and we Cooperate with Him

As we are learning to cooperate with the Lord in dealing with our heart for the flow of life to be free in us and out of us, we need to realise that God wants our heart to be soft (Ezek. 36:26; Matt. 13:4, 19; 2 Cor. 5:14; cf. Exo. 32:9; Jer. 48:11).

He gave us a new heart, and He came to sow Himself into the soil of our heart.

However, do we give Him the ground in our being for Him to grow? Is our heart soft and tender toward Him? Or are we stiff-necked, not willing to go along with Him?

Are we hard in our heart toward the Lord because of the worldly traffic we are involved in? We need to realise that our heart needs to be soft toward the Lord. The people of Israel were a stiff-necked people, and so are we today in many respects.

We love being at ease, and we don’t want to go through sufferings or hardships; we even want to get out of any hardships or sufferings.

But God wants our heart to be soft, so He works to soften our heart. Having a soft heart means that our will toward God is submissive and yielding to Him, not stiff-necked and rebellious.

So many times, however, our heart is like a stone, hard toward the Lord and not soft toward Him. So the Lord works in us and around us to help us be soft in our heart.

How does the Lord soften our heart and how can we cooperate with Him to have a soft heart?

First, God uses His love to move us; He constrains us with His love, He draws us with His love, and His love melts our heart.

If we open to Him and allow Him to soften our heart with His love, He has a way to make His home in our heart and flow freely as life.

He has a way to operate in us as the law of life to deliver us from the law of sin and of death.

However, if our heart is still hard and not soft toward the Lord, the Lord uses His hand through the environment to strike us until our heart is softened.

It is only when our heart is soft toward Him that He can work in us and His life can flow freely in us.

May we cooperate with the Lord day by day, first by responding to His love and second by not resisting His hand when He works through the environment to soften us. We need to pray that our heart would be soft toward the Lord.

We really need to open to Him in this matter, for everything and everyone around us can cause our heart to be hard toward the Lord, but we need to cooperate with the Lord to have a soft heart toward Him.

Lord Jesus, we open to You; cause our heart to be soft toward You. Save us from being stubborn or stiff-necked toward You in our will. May our will be pliable, obedient, and submissive toward You. May our heart not be tough or rough but soft toward the Lord. May our heart go along with You in what You want to do in us. Amen, Lord, we turn our heart to You. We want to cooperate with You to deal with our heart so that we may have a soft heart. Soften our heart. You see how hard our heart is. Draw us with Your love. Melt our heart and make it soft by Your love. Oh Lord, even as You deal with our hardened heart through the environment, may we learn to open to You and allow You to soften our heart! May our heart be softened so that Your life may work within us!

God Wants our Heart to be Pure, Loving God and Wanting God in Purity for us to See God

God wants our heart to be pure; our heart is focused on many other things and has many other loves besides God, so God wants to purify our heart and make our heart pure (Matt. 5:8; Psa. 73:1, 25; Jer. 32:39; Psa. 86:11b; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Tim. 1:5).

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. God is good to those who are pure in heart.

A person who is pure in heart desires only God, considering that there’s nothing on earth that he wants but God and there’s no one in heaven that he has but God.

May we open to the Lord to give us a pure heart, even a heart that fears Him all the days, for our own good and for the good of our children after us.

May we open to the Lord and ask Him to teach us His way so that we may walk in His truth, and may we let Him make our heart single in fearing His name.

In our pursuit of the Lord, may we flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

The hardest thing to find among Christians is purity; you can find power, but it’s hard to find purity. God wants our heart to be not only clean but pure.

To be clean is to be cleansed, but to be pure is to be single and unique in your intention – your aim is only God.

To be pure in heart is to have only one purpose, which is to gain Christ. However, our heart many times desires others things, pursues other things, and is focused on other persons and things besides the Lord.

We love the Lord, we surely do; however, as we are for the Lord and pursue Him, we are also pursuing something else, in a hidden way.

It may be that we pursue a career or caring for our family, or even doing a great work for the Lord. Oh Lord!

Whatever we have in our heart that we pursue besides the Lord causes division; the word division is die-vision, dual vision, having two visions and not one.

If we try to look at two objects at one time, we cannot see things clearly. We need to be single in our eye and pure in our heart. Purity of heart is desperately needed among us.

If we are not pure in heart, we cannot see God. If our thoughts are not focused solely on the Lord, if we love something else alongside God, then our heart is not pure.

May we come to the Lord regarding our heart and allow Him to purify our heart.

May we say Amen to His work within us and His work around us to remove things that replace Him.

May we pursue the Lord together with those who have a pure heart. When we are pure in heart, we will see God and His life can freely work in us.

May we open to the Lord concerning this and allow Him to purify our heart.

Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You. Grant us to have a pure heart toward You. Oh Lord, we love You! May we be pure and simple toward You in our heart. May our heart love only God and want only God! Oh, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! Amen, Lord, purify our heart! May we have a pure heart so that we may see God! May our heart be pure so that Your life may freely work in us and flow through us! You are so good, Lord, to those who are pure in heart. Grant us to have a single heart in fearing Your name. We love You, Lord. We open to You. Make our heart pure. Keep us coming to You again and again to be purified in our heart. We want to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart! Amen, Lord, we love You!

God wants our Heart to be Loving toward Him for His life within to Move Smoothly

God wants our heart to be loving toward Him, even to love Him to the uttermost (see Psa. 42:1-2; SS 1:1-4; 2 Cor. 3:16; 2 Thes. 3:5; Hymns, #546, #547; Eph. 6:24; John 15:9-10; 21:15-17; Matt. 26:6-13; 1 John 2:5).

In both the Old and the New Testament, God’s first commandment is that we love Him.

To love the Lord is to yearn after Him, desire Him, pant in our soul after Him, and desire to be with Him. We need to love the Lord with our whole being.

Having a loving heart toward the Lord means that our emotion loves God, desires God, thirsts after God, yearns for God, and has affection toward God.

We see a good description of our loving the Lord in Song of Songs; we should love the Lord even as a woman loves her beloved.

Our love for the Lord is so deep and unchanging, and it is as strong as death (Song of Songs. 8:6-7).

As we love the Lord, we can grow in life unto maturity.

Our heart is our loving organ; we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility. But our heart is distracted by so many things, and so many times we love other people or things besides the Lord. Oh Lord!

So the Lord comes to us even as He came to Peter after His resurrection, to recover and establish our love for Him.

We may deny the Lord, we may leave Him, yet He still comes to us to rekindle our love for Him. He asks us, Do you still love Me? Do you love Me more than these?

The Lord wants to lead our emotion toward Him so that we may love Him with the first love, with the best love.

When we allow the Lord to constrain us with His love, we will have a loving heart toward the Lord, and his life has an opportunity to grow in us and spread within us, even to work within us.

Another good example of someone who loved the Lord to the uttermost was the woman who broke the alabaster flask and poured out all she had on the Lord.

Though she was ridiculed by those sitting there, who said, What a waste, the Lord said, The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me!

We may even love the poor more than we love the Lord. May we come to the Lord in His word to see His preciousness and just love Him.

May we open to Him and allow Him to lead us to love Him more.

When we love the Lord with the first love, when our heart is loving toward the Lord, the Lord’s life within us can move smoothly and do as it pleases.

Lord Jesus, we love You! Cause our heart to be loving toward You today. Rekindle our love for You. Oh Lord, may we have a loving heart toward the Lord! May our heart be filled with emotion toward You, loving You, desiring You, thirsting after You, yearning after You, and seeking You with much affection! Amen, Lord, You are our beloved. We love to come to You and tell You that we love You. You are the most precious One. All other things are nothing compared to You; You are the most lovely One. We are Your beloved bride and You are our Beloved Husband. We love You, Lord Jesus! Keep us coming to You. Keep us open to You. May we respond to Your loving seeking day by day so that our heart may be drawn to You and love You! Amen, Lord, we love You and we allow Your life within us to move smoothly and do as it pleases for the fulfilment of Your purpose!

God wants our Heart to be at Peace, with a Conscience Void of Offense and with No Condemnation

God wants our heart to be at peace, having no offense or condemnation (see Acts 24:16; 1 John 3:19-21; Heb. 10:22; 1 John 1:7, 9; 1 Tim. 1:5; Phil. 4:6-7; Col. 3:13-15). We need to exercise to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

When we confess our sins, trespasses, and offenses, He washes us and cleanses us, and He forgives us.

In this way we persuade our heart before Him and our heart does not blame us; therefore, we have boldness toward God.

May we have a pure heart and a good conscience. If there’s no peace in our heart, may we come to the Lord and allow the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.

In the church life, as we meet and blend with the saints, may we learn to bear one another, forgive one another, and if there’s any complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave us, so should we forgive one another.

And above all these, may we put on love, which is the uniting bond of perfectness, and let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

We need to have a heart that is at peace, even a peaceable heart. Our heart needs to be free of condemnation and with no fear or accusation.

Our heart needs to have a clear conscience without offense toward God and man. In this way, our heart will be bold toward God, and there will be no blame.

May we have a true heart, a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, a heart that enjoys the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing.

For this, we need to clearly deal with any offense, condemnation, and reproach; when we do this, our heart will be at peace, even safe and secure.

When our heart is at peace, God can pass through, and the law of life can continue to work within us.

When our heart is not at peace either with God or with man, God’s life cannot flow freely in us, and the Lord cannot operate in our being.

May we learn to deal with our heart before the Lord and allow Him to guard our heart in His peace.

When our heart is established blameless in holiness by the continual renewing of the sanctifying Spirit, we believers in Christ become the New Jerusalem with the newness of the divine life and the holy city with the holiness of the divine nature (Rev. 21:2; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4).

Today we are in the process of becoming the holy city, New Jerusalem, by remaining in the process of being sanctified through the renewing of our heart. May we cooperate with the Lord for this.

Lord Jesus, may our heart be at peace. We come to You and remain under Your shining. Expose any sin, mistake, and wrongdoing; we want to confess what You expose. Amen, Lord, we repent and confess of our sins. Cleanse us and wash us. Forgive us of our sins. We want to deal with our conscience so that it may be clean and pure before You. May we have a peaceable heart, a heart free of accusation and condemnation. May we have a clear and good conscience without any offense toward God and man. Amen, Lord, may we have a true heart, a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. May we enjoy the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing, and may our heart be at peace with God and with people. Guard our heart, Lord, as the God of peace, and may Your peace arbitrate in our heart. May our heart be at peace so that God can pass through and so that the law of life can continue to work in us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Minoru Chen on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” ch. 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 29, The Cause of Our Blamelessness in Holiness and the Cause of Our Complete Sanctification in Our Spirit, Soul, and Body – day 3.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In dealings with the Lord as life / We need a proper heart, / That of His riches, in His grace, / We fully may take part. / We need a heart in all things pure, / With mind both sound and clear, / To understand His mind and heart / In trembling and in fear. (Hymns #744 stanzas 1-2)
  – Lord Jesus, soften us; / You know the source from which we came. / By calling on Your name, / Lord, let no earth unturned nor rocks remain— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Lord, make us pure in heart; / For we’ll be not content until / You all our being fill, / O Lord, renew our mind, emotion, will— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanzas 3 and 6)
  – Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. / Shall I not yield to that constraining power? / Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in? / My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me, / Life cannot be as it hath hither been. (Hymns #431 stanzas 1-2)