“Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart
to revere your name.”
Psalm 86:11
I live with a divided heart. I say one thing and do another. I want God to be the priority but then waste time paying heed to human approval. I say I believe in forgiveness but then can’t forgive myself for not being more perfect. I say I know I have weaknesses but spend a great deal of energy justifying my actions. I see the loving way forward but knowingly choose the self-interested way. You get the idea. There are moments, though, when I am caught up in the passion of what I am doing as a follower of Christ, when the energy and creativity have such little thought of self, when my interdependence with the many outweighs the individual, when love triumphs, yes, when loves wins out. God is in the process of undividing my spiritual heart each day. Mending and making whole. Growing something new. The honesty to admit that I start with a divided heart is the place of truth where the true walking begins.
Suggestions:
1. Take this verse with you and ponder its meaning for you throughout the day. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Where is your heart divided? Where is God mending it?
2. Or read all of Psalm 86 to discover how this verse fits into this psalm.
3. Or comment with a photo of your own that is a window of this verse’s meaning for you.
Tomorrow’s psalm will be Psalm 87:1,7
Starting January 1, 2016, for 150 days I am posting a daily psalm verse with a photo that is a visual meditation on the text for me. Each day a verse from the next psalm is chosen until all 150 psalms have been featured. To participate you may subscribe to my blog at https://elainedent.net or “friend” me on Facebook and watch for the daily links to blog posts. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and most of the photos are from a cell phone or small camera while hiking the Appalachian Trail or the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Trail.
Judith Plotner says
LOVE this…so well said!!