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Oh... My Divided Heart


How quickly good intentions can lead to a divided heart.  A heart with divided desires and loyalties  fragmented by good intentions and lack of priorities and discipline.  

A heart trying to serve two lords.

What is the heart of a person?  I've included site references below.  The Bible talks about the heart as being-the core of a person.  The center of thinking.  The person's mind, will, emotions etc.  The Hebrew word for heart is "leb" and means: the inner part, soul, mind, thinking, reflection, resolution, determination, seat of appetite, emotions, passions and courage.


What does a divided heart look like?  A divided heart is a fragmented heart.  A heart that is compartmentalized into categories such a career, family, God, etc.  

Without focus, confidence, passion and purpose...an exhausted heart.  A heart that is trying to serve two masters...God and others/myself.  Check out Mathew 6:24!

We have to guard our heart because as Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"  

Our heart wants to go off and do its own thing.  We have to guard it and rein it in.  This passage of Jeremiah shows us what happens when we trust in man/world and what happens when we trust in God. 

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."

So with all of that...I get so frustrated with how quickly my heart begins to slide into people pleasing and trusting and seeking mode.  ..."Sure I'd love to go to that training or be on that committee."  

(Because I can make a difference.  Because they want me.  Because I like it.  Sign me up.  What can I do to help?)  

Not that these are bad things but if I'm doing them outside of my relationship with God then it is wrong for me.  It leads to me trying to do everything on my own and feeling guilty and inadequate when I can't.  

It leads to compartmentalizing of my relationship with God and my service to Him and what I want to do in the rest of my life.  If I keep Him first then I do everything else In Him.  Then....

"He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."17:8

I Want To Be A GIANT Oak Planted by Streams of Water!


http://www.blueletterbible.org/

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/whatisap/whatip7a.htm

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