Give me an undivided heart

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

I’m struck by the power and necessity of being in God’s awesome presence, better one day in his courts than a thousand elsewhere, as it says in Psalm 84. I’m also delighted that Joanna Moss will be talking all about this later today, so you’ll want to check out her thoughts about this.

The other big theme which jumps out at me across this Psalm selection is that whether the writers are in a calm or stressful, blissed or busy, protected or vulnerable place, they long for God, not just to be with them but to define them. They don’t just call for peace, they call for change from the inside out.

“Give me an undivided heart” reminds me that where God’s people (and I) have failed to get important things right, it was often not because we didn’t know the right thing to do, or stopped believing in God, but that other things seemed to compete. That can lead to impossible balancing acts, too much to try and process, too many people to please or an excess of noise making God’s calm, assured whisper of a voice too hard to hear.

I’m looking at Deuteronomy in advance of next week’s Bible In A Year and remembering how much God stressed to have “no other gods”. “The Lord is one. Love the Lord… with all your strength.” In Psalm 84, the Psalmists want their strength to be in God, which I take to mean that God defines it, so we aren’t bringing ourselves to God with a show of strength, but trusting him to make us strong, part of his work, indivisible from him. Is that possible?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God knows that we may approach him from many directions and with lots of other things on our minds and hearts. God loves us wholeheartedly and wants us to experience life in his presence, knowing his nature and not remaining as we were, but being redefined by him. His Spirit can inspire us to call for what we need, including forgiveness, teaching, strength and an enduring desire to want what God wants with undivided hearts given by him.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I’m nervous approaching the summer holidays. One of the things I’ve realised during lockdown and home schooling is that I absolutely love my son, but if my mind, attention and heart are divided and if I try and do too many things at once, I can’t give him my best. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, but I need the undivided heart that God offers so that his priorities rule. So, I’m going to spend time each day in undivided listening to God, and trust that my busyness the rest of the time can be ordered, with strength found in him.

Who am I going to share this with?

My family!