An Undivided Heart

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“Teach me your way, O YHWH,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name” (Psalm 86:11).

Sometimes I feel uninspired. I don’t know what to write about, and I just can’t think of anything special to say.

I remember when I was writing my very first book, I was struggling to get the ideas across — but after my editor took hours of time to hone and perfect it, the words sounded much better than anything I had originally written.

My heart has the same struggle. I honestly desire to walk in truth and to fear God’s name.

But I just can’t do it.

Not in my own strength, anyway. I bumble along, trying to seek after truth, but I only get confused and lost. When presented with two options, I think one is right. No, wait… it’s the other one. No, it’s the first one after all. Oh, I don’t know!

Even worse is when my sinful pride rears its head and I choose lies even though I know the truth. Those are the choices I later regret. Scripture says this happens because I become wise in my own eyes, rather than fearing my Creator God (Proverbs 3:7).

David begged YHWH, “Teach me your way! Give me an undivided heart!” (Psalm 86:11)

An undivided heart is a Hebrew idiom which reminds us of the smooth stones that were used to draw lots and divide up various things. David was asking for a smooth heart, a heart that wasn’t distracted and divided by the cares of this world.

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).

But even David recognized that he couldn’t recognize truth or be devoted to God entirely — unless God taught him and unless God gave it to him.

I struggle with this. Maybe I have too much of the personality that says, “God helps him who helps himself.” I am sure we do have personal responsibility to obey and walk in the truth.

But there is the other side of this coin, which says that without the moving of God’s Spirit within us, we can do no good thing (Romans 3:10-18).

One day, the Spirit of YHWH set the prophet Ezekiel in the middle of a valley that was filled with dry bones. In Ezekiel’s own words,

He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “O Sovereign YHWH, you alone know. ”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of YHWH! This is what Sovereign YHWH says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am YHWH. ’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what Sovereign YHWH says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10)

It is truly a miracle that the creative breath of God can breathe upon my life. When God decides to make his Spirit enter me, my dry bones are covered with flesh and skin. I also note that the breath of God comes from the Word of the Creator.

It is only as I allow the Spirit of God access to my heart, through His Word as revealed in His Scriptures, that I can ever have the power to walk in His way or have an undivided heart.

Spirit of God, breathe on me!