1. Read Psalm 27 incarnationally. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. How does Psalm 27 encourage you in fear? How does it call you to trust more fully?
3. In just a few words describe the “wicked, enemies, and armies that besiege you?”
4. Practically, how do you seek His face?
5. When you think about the face of God, what do you think about?
6. In what ways do you find yourself waiting to “see God?”
7. Why are the “pure in heart” blessed?
8. How does one become pure in heart?
9. Read Psalm 24.3-4. Describe the religious tension in internal purity (pure heart) and external purity (clean hands).
10. How do you resist the temptation in focusing your attention on the external practices of religion, vs. the internal practices of faith?
11. Whom in your life do you consider to be “pure in heart?”
12. Read Jeremiah 17.9, and then Hebrews 9.11-4. How do you see God at work in giving us pure hearts?
13. Read and reflect on Wesley’s quote regarding the “pure in heart.”
“The pure in heart” are they whose hearts God has “purified even as he is pure”; who are purified, through faith in the blood of Jesus, from every unholy affection; who, being “cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfect holiness in the” loving “fear of God.” They are, through the power of his grace, purified from pride, by the deepest poverty of spirit; from anger, from every unkind or turbulent passion, by meekness and gentleness; from every desire but to please and enjoy God, to know and love him more and more, by that hunger and thirst after righteousness which now engrosses their whole soul: so that now they love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and mind, and strength.
14. Where do you see God most clearly? What do you see?
15. Is it possible to see God in the darkness? If so, how so.
16. Jesus says Luke 4.16-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
How is the mission of Jesus being lived out today? Where does it begin?
17. Ask God for eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to love. Ask Him for a pure heart so you will see God.
