If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me! (Psalm 66:18-20 ESV).
a pure heart
Once again we are encouraged to look at our motives for doing what we do. The psalmist is telling us of his experiences of walking with God and of developing the right attitude towards his companions. Throughout this psalm he cajoles his contemporaries to praise God for who he is (v.1), praise him for what he has done (vv.3-6), and praise God for where he is taking us (v.12). It is after this tirade of praise and worship that the penny suddenly drops for the psalmists! Here I am praising God and inviting others to do the same, but…. and then he realises….My praise and worship are conditional!
The conditional statement relates to the state of my heart [my mind] and dictates that I clean up my act first before I encourage others to do the same. This is what Jesus was teaching his hearers in the Sermon on the Mount. “Take the plank [of wood] out of your own eye first before telling your neighbour about the speck of dust in their eye.” i.e. don’t judge so that you won’t be judged and don’t share what God has revealed to you with everyone (Matt 7:1-6).
For the Lord to hear and answer our prayers we need to remove all rebellious thoughts from our hearts, love our neighbours and find two people who we can be accountable to, then the Lord will hear our prayers, accept our praises and grant to us the desires of our hearts.
Read Psalm 66
Pastor Bell's Words To Live By 
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