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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. Gary Smalley 
 
 
Question: 
 
How can I develop a pure heart? 
 
Answer:  
 
You know, it’s super exciting to be at my age—I’m very happy that I’m 
still living, because if you want your heart to be pure, the great thing 
about this and the most encouraging thing to me is that you actually 
are in control of this. You and I actually manage how pure our heart is. 
It’s not a guessing thing for me any more. 
 
Here’s how I came about this. I realize that King Solomon in Proverbs 
said, “Above everything else I do in life, make sure that I guard my 
heart, because out of my heart flows the well-spring of who I am.” 
(Proverbs 4:23) 
 
When I first heard that, my son was challenging me to take personal 
responsibility for who I am, that I am the one who actually manages 
my emotions and my words and my thoughts.  I didn’t get that at first, 
because I was trying to figure out, “How am I responsible? Because it’s 
how life’s treating me, how much money you’re making, whether 
people are offending you, or what the weather’s like, or what kind of 
car you drive, or your home.” So, I just thought that everything in my 
life was affecting me, including my wife, and I thought she was a 
principle contributor to whether I’m happy or not. 
 
Well, what I discovered is, once reading in Matthew, Matthew 12 and 
Matthew 15, where Jesus says, “Out of a man’s heart flows all of his 
thoughts and all of his words and all of his actions.” (Matthew 15:18-
19) I thought, “Out of my heart? My physical pump, you mean?” That 
 
 
made no sense to me. So, I thought, “It’s got to be more.” So I just 
kept praying and asking God, “Show me what You mean by this. I 
don’t know what this is.”  
 
Then I remember reading Romans 10:9-10. This is where the light 
went off, and this is where I really got excited, because this is what led 
me down a path that really worked for me. Romans 10:9-10 says this: 
“If I say with my mouth that Jesus is my boss, and if I believe in my 
heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, then I’m saved,” because 
man believes in his heart, and the result is righteousness, a pure 
heart, godliness. So then I thought, “Therefore, my beliefs are in my 
heart.” 
 
I’ve used this already once before, but I now only work on my own 
heart, and the way I work on it is to change my own beliefs, so that, 
and we all know this verse, “Thy word I have I hid in my heart so that 
I can’t sin against God.” (Psalm 119:11) Well, the amazing thing is, I 
have about twenty top Bible verses that I have hidden in my heart 
over the last four years, and those verses are really controlling who I 
am, because those verses have eventually become my beliefs. 
 
For example, every Christian on the earth—everyone who believes in 
God on the earth—needs to memorize Matthew 22:37-39, because 
Jesus said it’s the greatest commandment there is: “Love the Lord 
your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,” and then “love 
others like yourself,” or like you want to be loved. I have those two 
precious verses in my heart today. You know how I did it? I 
memorized them, and I chew on them every day, like Jeremiah 15:16 
says, “The word of God is like food.” You eat it and you chew on it all 
day long, like meditating. 
 
And every time you think the verse, every time you say the verse out 
loud, it’s like putting a mark on your heart, and the more you say it, 
the broader the mark is, the deeper the mark is. It’s like printing. It’s 
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like tattooing your heart. It’s like branding your heart. It’s called 
“hiding God’s word in your heart.”  
 
Listen to what this does: when His word reaches your heart—it goes to 
the brain first, then reaches the heart—it becomes your belief, and 
then that controls you, and that’s how God controls our life. And that’s 
why our behavior reflects God, because our beliefs are really God’s 
beliefs. 
 
Isn’t that exciting? 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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