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| Psalm 86.11 (NIV) Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. |
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| God gives each of us the freedom to choose our focus.* |
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The comedian says, “You might be a redneck if . . .” As
Christians, we could modify the phrase by saying, “You might have a divided
heart if . . .” A heart that is divided between love for God and love for self
is easily distracted from the path of righteousness. If you display signs of
scattered affections, you might have a divided heart. If you suffer from the “imbalance
that comes from having one foot in your will and one foot in his,”* you just might have a divided heart. If you display signs of hypocrisy, you
might have a divided heart.
It is helpful to have a name for my condition! My
heart is divided between my love for God and my love for me. And it is not an
even split. How can I learn to love myself less and to love God more? Am I up
to the challenge? Am I ready to let go of my selfish desires, my demand to have
it my way?
Surrender does not come naturally to us but we are
called to rise above what is natural and put on a spiritual nature. When we ask
God to show us his ways, he knows if we mean it. He knows if we have determined
in our minds to have an undivided heart. And just by arriving at the point of
asking sincerely, we are already well along on the path to putting our heart
back together because “change in human behavior starts in the mind, not the
heart.”*
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| We have become disgruntled and would rather change our environment than change ourselves.* |
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