Monday, March 27, 2017

Psalm 86 - An Undivided Heart

11 Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

19 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.

The psalmist asked God to him an undivided heart. 
In Ezekiel, God said that He would give His people an undivided heart.
Our hearts, my heart, can be scattered in so many ways. I want to live a holy life but I get distracted by the world. I suppose I could list a lot of different ways my heart is divided, but it will do you more good for you to look into your own heart to see how it may be divided.
Jesus said that we can't serve two masters, that we will hate one and love the other.
13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
But I can't put my heart together on my own. The psalmist couldn't put his heart together on his own. And we can see in Ezekiel that God knows that. The children of Israel couldn't keep the law, they turned from God and He sent them out into exile. But here God was promising Ezekiel that He would gather them back, give them back to the land of Israel, but the best part - whether Ezekiel realized it or not - was the promise of a New Covenant. 

I'm probably leaving out some of my thoughts of how I'm getting here.... but that's just how it's going tonight. :-) 
If any man is in Christ he is a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17, says the same thing that Ezekiel said - replacing a heart of stone with a heart of flesh.
Hmmmm. OK. I'm on two different tracks but I think they have the same answer.
1. Is a non-believer getting a new heart.
2. Is a believer who has a new heart but the cares of life or the temptations of the world have divided his heart. 
The answer for both of these is for the LORD to change the heart.
Are you dealing with a divided heart? I'm guessing yes - because we all do. Even the Apostle Paul did. See what he says in Romans 7 But he also gives the answer in Romans 7
24 Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I've gone on long enough. I hope I put out enough dots that you can connect some of them.
Bottom line:
Do you have heart issues? Jesus Christ is the answer.

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