Unite My Heart

Psalm 86, a prayer of King David, is a favourite of mine.  It seems to sum up much of the Christian existence.  I often make verse 11 my prayer:

"Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name"

While some verses can seem a little presumptuous to pray, verse two for example says, "Preserve my life, for I am godly;" we should be aware that this is the direction of life of the Christian.  Everyone who is born again has been fundamentally changed into a new being - into one who can come before God to pray with the confidence of Christ who is the perfect and godly one in each of us.

Unfortunately, we do not often share this confidence with King David.  Our recent sin is fresh in our memory, and we do not feel holy.  Whether we have said words in anger, let our gaze linger upon something we shouldn't, or have harboured resentful thoughts, our own heart is betraying our new nature and our prayer lacks conviction because of our guilt.

In such moments we must take hold of forgiveness from the Father and have him unite our heart, lest we be like the kingdom divided against itself that will fall (Matthew 12:25).  Prayer is a part of this process, but the same verse 11 gives us further advice to achieve a united heart.

The first part, learning God's ways, and learning to walk in His truth, is the same thing as having a heart united and set upon Him.  The internal conviction is not separate from the external action.  1John 1:6 from the New Testament shows us that our actions, how we "walk", must match our words which claim fellowship.  If it is clear that our actions don't meet our convictions, we should be praying for something more serious than our walk with God - our souls are likely more in step with the world and our heart is united with the devil.

Before you can worry about becoming more like Jesus, you must first seek salvation from him.  Only then will your heart be freed from the devil to become new and holy, and then the battle with competing desires will begin.  You can be sure that you are saved if you long for your heart to be united, to walk in God's ways, and to live by His truth.  In a sense, the prayer for a united heart will only be truly complete when Jesus returns and our transformation is complete, but for now we can continue to strive, and pray, and enjoy each step of progress.

Pray, with David:

"Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name"

May God grant you to desire and to achieve this prayer.


Amen

The Hard Way

Sometimes it is worth doing things the hard way, just for the sake of the challenge or for finding out something new in the process.  What this might mean, in practical terms, is that you are on your own and trying things out that nobody else will try out.  I think that this is an inspiring way to lead, or to blaze a trail through new territory, so that others can then follow.

This can seem quite a courageous thing to do.  However, on the balance of a cost-benefit analysis, it might be easy enough to just see that the way people have been doing something for the last age is simply not working, so why not try something new.  The education system for example: assuming it is a major cause of societal dysfunction, why don’t we do it differently?  Make a few big changes in your methods if you are an educator, give it a few years for the effects to become obvious, and then see what happens.

The hard way can get easier with practice, and it is possible that you will discover a better way, where the efforts produce enough benefit to be worthwhile.  Just because the natural state of things is to find the most efficient or easy way, like a path through the woods, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way to benefit way more, e.g. putting in the effort to build a road through the less trod path.

I have been inspired to take a fresh approach, often taking the hard way, by Robert Frost’s classic, included in full below.  While it seems this was not Frost’s intention in writing, it has served in this way very well for very many.  My personal irony is that I tend to abhor people reading their own intent into what an author meant, especially when it comes to interpreting the bible.  However, this is a little different as it is a work of art and art is generally designed to inspire and cause people to reflect.  Anyway, for your own inspiration, here it is:

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

and sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

and having perhaps the better claim

because it was grassy and wanted wear;

though as for that, the passing there

had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

in leaves no feet had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less travelled by,

and that has made all the difference