I often think about an illustration I once used with a youth Sunday School class. For several weeks, we kept two pictures posted on the wall. One was a classic TV dinner. The other was a chicken pot pie.
Whether we were studying Psalm 86 or not, the lesson connected to a truth found in the poem. The psalmist asks God for "an undivided heart," and later says that he gives thanks to God with his “whole heart."
When you listen to people talk about their lives, many of us live more like a TV dinner than a pot pie. We have a church self, a work self, a social media self, a political self, and a friend self. Each compartment has its own space, carefully separated from the others. As long as the sections stay divided, everything seems fine.
But the faith of the Bible doesn't recognize that kind of life. The psalmist longs for something different. He prays for a heart that is whole, integrated, and fully devoted to God because faith is not meant to be one compartment among many. Faith shapes every part of who we are.
A pot pie may not be much to look at, but everything is wonderfully mixed together. The vegetables, gravy, and chicken aren't separated into neat little sections. That doesn’t even make sense to consider! In the same way, your faith is supposed to seep into every corner of life, influencing how you work, treat people, spend money, vote, serve, and how you love your neighbors.
The psalmist didn't live in our modern world, but he still knew the importance of praying for an undivided heart. How much more do we need to recognize that it is not something we can achieve on our own? We, too, need God's help.
Today, ask God to make your faith more than a Sunday compartment. Ask God for an undivided heart, and then watch what happens when faith and life become one.
Stay blessed...john
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