An Undivided Heart

Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  Psalm 86:11 (NIV)

This psalm was written as a prayer by David.  When David asked the Lord to grant him an undivided heart, he knew what benefit he was requesting.  He was asking for the kind of heart and mind and personality that would reverence God's character and adhere to God's way of doing things.  It can become easy for us to do things our own way.  Sometimes we think "I got this" only to find out that we "dropped this" and have to turn to God any way. It is easy after one victory to automatically think that what worked in that situation will work in another.  That's why it is important to pray and ask God for direction.

God longs for us to be steady and secure in our thought lives, in our emotions, in our actions, and in our choices.  This way of thinking and living comes easier and more naturally for some of us than for others.  For this reason the Lord teaches us to seek Him and petition Him for "an undivided heart."  This is a prayer that He desires to answer in every life, and His answer to this petition in every life can change it.  We need to be taught God's way and His truth.  Our hearts need to be united to fear His name.  Not fearing in a controlling sense but fearing in a vein of reverence for who He is and what He has done and will continue to do in our life if we allow Him to.

An undivided heart is not a heart that turns this way and that, choosing one thing one minute and another thing the next.  A person with an undivided heart has a heart like God's, a heart that is righteous and balanced and whole and holy. God promises to mold and shape us into His image and give us the strength by the power of the Holy Spirit to exhibit His character in our every day life.  Pray today that God will either give you or strengthen you to have an undivided heart.