Is your heart divided? “Of course not,” is the answer most give to that question. But the reality is this: unless we are totally focused upon loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength all the time, we have a problem with a divided heart.
Mark 12:29–31 (ESV) — 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
A divided heart moves into a divided mind, which robs one from wisdom and other blessings from God as well as leading into other sins.
James 1:5–8 (ESV) — 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
As God inspects the fruit we are offering to Him, any division in our hearts renders the offering to God as unacceptable.
Hosea 10:1–2 (KJV) — 1 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: According to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; According to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
On the other hand, working at keeping the heart from being divided means you are all in when seeking after God and doing what pleases Him. There may be a stumble from time to time, but your desire it to be of a single mind and a single heart focused upon God and His word. Consider the benefits:
Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV) — 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
It is on this line that Paul wrote the admonition in Romans after considering the great salvation that God has brought about by His grace described in the first 11 chapters. He brings the twelfth chapter with a challenge and a motivation.
Romans 12:1–2 (ESV) — 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
He’s not encouraging an easy-going, non-committed way of life. Rather, based upon God’s mercy which entails the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and second coming of our totally committed Lord Jesus Christ, how could you be anything less than totally committed?
Let’s put your commitment to the test and see if it indicates a divided heart and mind. Place yourself preparing for Sunday. How does your typical Sunday look? For most Christians, they plan to attend a morning worship service and maybe a Bible study. However, referencing Sunday as the “Lord’s Day,” which you’ll find in the New Testament as well as early church history, is rarely used among Christians because they believe they have done enough if they give God an hour or two. Sadly, many Christians look forward to bolting out of the worship service and heading to other activities of the day, often changing their clothes to attend sporting or other worldly events. What happens if the church has a Sunday evening service? It’s meagerly attended as most people follow the world saying of “Sunday is FUNDAY.”
Stop the madness! Have you ever thought that the reason why your Christian life may seem dull is that you have been offering to God a divided heart and mind, pretending to be all in but really trying to hold to the world and to God at the same time? Interesting, the book of Isaiah has God presenting a test regarding the Sabbath.
Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV) — 13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Are you ready for God to kick things up a few notches of blessing in your life? Who wouldn’t desire that, right? The simple instruction to preparation is to take heed to how singularly you treat the Lord’s Day. God calls upon us to stop offering a divided heart and to turn from that which is dividing your personal pleasure on His day and to go even further to treat the Lord’s Day as a delight as you honor God on His day. Notice He even goes further to say that you should not go your own ways, seek your own pleasure, or be given to idle talk. (The Lord’s Day is so called because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, aka Sunday and often called the Christian Sabbath – hence the same focus of honoring God on the Lord’s Day as on the Jewish Sabbath.)
Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV) — 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor God with an undivided heart and mind that begins by honoring Him with delight on His day.
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker, Pastor
Christ Community Presbyterian Church
