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Scripture for the day: Psalm 86:11; Ezekiel 11:19 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.... “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh."
Thought for the day: Every promise in the Book is yours. We've looked at a couple of those promises in the past few days. One is that you can grow and mature in Christ. Another is that you can have "rest" from your labors - not a rest of inactivity (you may end up busier than ever) but from the stress and worry that come with trying to do everything on your own. The next promise I'd like to look at is the promise of an undivided heart.
What did David mean when he prayed for such a thing? And what did God mean when he promised Ezekiel He'd provide such a thing as an undivided heart?
A divided heart is one that has competing loyalties. It's the kind of heart, or will, that would die for Jesus one day and sell Him out for 30 pieces of silver the next. "But I would never do that,” you say. Neither would Peter but he denied Jesus three times to avoid the accusations of a little girl. He had a divided heart, as did all the disciples and every person who comes to Jesus for salvation. Oh, we think when we're redeemed that we've completely turned everything over to Him but the fact is there is still that old nature within us that wants to go our own way. There was a British comedy on the Television that I used to see from time to time and a lady sales clerk in a department store on the program used to get very opinionated and, after rendering her opinion in no uncertain terms, would conclude by saying, "And I am unanimous in that!" Well, we must either be unanimous on the inside or we'll be defeated on the outside.
A person with a divided heart is "unstable in all his ways" and "cannot please God." One mind tells him to go to church; the other says it's all right to stay home today. One mind says tithe while the other says she's got better use for the money. A divided heart often does the right things for the wrong reasons. A primary purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to show the disciples how their motives must drive their actions and they must come to "perfection" in Him if they were to serve Him as they said they would. A divided heart lives life in Romans 7.
An undivided heart is a Romans 8 heart. It is a heart controlled by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit; a heart completely surrendered to the will of God; a heart that beats in sync with the heartbeat of God. And God has promised to give us such a heart. And what is the condition for receiving this undivided heart, this alignment of motives? It is the same as for all other promises of God - we are to surrender completely our will to His and allow Him to be the governing director of all we do, say, and even think. "I must decrease while He must increase", as John the Baptist said. And how does God accomplish this great transformation? "Ask and you shall receive...." By faith we believe (and keep on believing) God's promises to us, that He will remove from us the desire to go our own way and replace it with a heart and will that is fully consecrated and completely aligned with His; a heart characterized by Christian love for God and others.
It's yours for the asking. You can have it today. You have but to ask and He will remove that old heart of stone and replace it with a new, soft heart of flesh, pliable and useful to our Lord.
Now go take on your world. - Bill