Part Three - The Path of Life
Chapter 16 Prayer and Worship
5) Purity of Intention
Since The Essence Of Worship is the disposition of the heart, the intention we bring to an act of worship determines its value. Even when the outward form of an act expresses faith and obedience, a person’s inner intentions become manifest in the end. Progress on the path to God requires purity of heart and sincerity of mind.
Intention begins our life in the world. When the Israelites approached the Temple and sung the psalm, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?” they were declaring that in their daily lives they had been obedient to God’s commandments to live ethically and justly. From that pure starting-point, we can cultivate a mind conducive to worship by placing our practical concerns in second place to the affairs of Heaven. As we glorify God in our minds and dedicate our bodies to His service, our sincere intention opens the door to an authentic relationship. For the antithesis of sincerity, see Chapter 15: Hypocrisy. For more on the role of sincerity in everyday life, see Chapter 12: Sincerity and Authenticity.
1. Purity and Sincerity of Heart
World Scripture
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5.8
A man becomes pure through sincerity of intellect; thereupon, in meditation, he beholds Him who is without parts. Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.8 (Hinduism)
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek thee, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Psalm 24.3-6
All you who come before me, hoping to attain the accomplishment of your desires, pray with hearts pure from falsehood, clean within and without, reflecting the truth like a mirror. Oracle of Temmangu (Shinto)
Though I had nothing to eat but a red-hot ball of iron, I will never accept even the most savory food offered by a person with an impure mind. Though I were sitting upon a blazing fire hot enough to melt copper, I will never go to visit the place of a person with a polluted mind. Oracle of the Kami Hachiman (Shinto)
O my brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine within it and the eternal morning dawn. Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys 21 (Baha’i Faith)
Sincerity (ihsan): You should worship God as if you saw Him; for although you do not see Him, He sees you. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 2 (Islam)
Sincerity (makoto) is the mind of the kami. Accordingly, when serving the kami in worship, if one has a mind of sincerity, the kami will surely respond. Ekken Kiabara, Divine Injunctions (Shinto)
A man who makes efforts to cleave to God has no time to think of unimportant matters; when he constantly serves the Creator he has no time to be vain. Israel Baal Shem Tov (Judaism)
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Revelation 3.15-16
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God does not work where utmost sincerity is lacking. (Way of God’s Will 1.1.1)
God’s heart is the home of eternal blessing. Prepare within yourself a place where God’s heart can abide; then His blessing will flow through you. (Way of God’s Will 2.3)
Guide us not to be sons and daughters who live for ourselves and keep Christ at a distance. (2:300, June 30, 1957)
We cannot overcome with tricks or by talent, but only with a sincere heart. The question is how much sincerity you invest in loving and serving God, with how much sincerity you long for Him, with how much sincerity you seek to know His inmost feelings, and through these experiences how much you can restore a father-son relationship with Him. (42:228, March 14, 1971)
Regardless of whether anyone is watching, you should fulfill your responsibility. You should keep your promise with God. (104:112, April 15, 1979)
True sons and daughters should show sincerity, not mainly about the practical things of everyday life, but rather sincerity of hope in God, sincerity to glorify God, sincerity in their filial piety to our Heavenly Father, and sincerity in submission to God’s will. If you practice all these forms of sincerity, then heaven will become your heaven and Heavenly Father will become your Heavenly Father. (17:245, January 29, 1967)
Some people forsake everything for a doctrine or abandon their own views for the sake of an ideology, but if they are not doing it to find the truth that can elevate their minds, then they cannot make a worthy relationship with Heaven. What must we do to enter the nucleus of the divine mind and cleanse our defiled minds that have inherited our ancestors’ lineage of sin from the beginning of history? We must give our utmost; as Jesus said, “Love the Lord God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (2:194, May 19, 1957)