Undivided: No Rival

Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. Distracted. So many people are. But while we can afford to allow this to happen in other areas of life, we must not tolerate this in our spiritual lives. If we don’t do very well in our jobs or businesses because we are not able to focus, the losses are real (and can be serious in some cases), but we may still be able to continue and do somewhat okay. If we are distracted in our studies, we may still do okay (some very capable students even maintain high grades while being too busy with other things). But we cannot say the same on the spiritual area of our lives. We are spiritually bankrupt without Jesus Christ. Apart from a living relationship with him and flow of life from him, we cannot do anything of eternal impact. And without the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and empowerment, all our efforts are merely fleshly and therefore cannot penetrate people’s hearts and produce lasting spiritual fruit. We therefore need focus in our relationship with God. Because we love the Lord, being undivided in our commitment to him is natural, enjoyable, and very satisfying. Having said that, we need to protect our “first-love” relationship with Jesus Christ from rivals. These can be romantic attractions or relationships, financial pressures or goals, the poison that comes from unforgiveness, worries of life, and anything that can distract us. May the Lord receive undivided love from his people. This is to joyfully fulfill the commands for us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. The Lord deserves it, we enjoy doing it, yet we must fight for it by guarding our hearts and our use of time and other valuable resources.   Lathur Badoy