United heart

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

UNITED HEART

Prov 23:26-28

26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways, 27 for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. 28 Like a bandit she lies in wait, and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

NIV

Certainly this is God speaking to each and every spirit of mankind. But especially to those who have been given the right to be called sons or daughters of God. He speaks to the point of loving him with all our heart, mind, spirit and strength. Give him our heart. If our heart is divided in two the body would surely die. Our heart needs to be serving the whole of our body functioning as one heart serving only the purpose it was intended to do. This is the same as its function toward God. We cannot serve God and anything else, the scripture calls it money, but that represents all other things. If the devotion of our heart is divided certainly we will die. Of course we must love ourselves, and we must love all others, as Christ loved us. But that is letting our eyes keeping to his ways. By loving others as ourselves we are in fact loving God by following his ways. But the idea here about the prostitute and the wayward wife is they are the world, the tempest. Their function is to draw us away from God. They are like bandits who lie in wait for us, to ensnare us, to trap us, to entice us to lie with them. This is likened to adultery. Because we are the bride of Christ, we are to be that faithful bride, holding ourselves only to him. But here we are in the world, being invited into bed with it, to enjoy its pleasures, to give our heart to its ways, to love it and the life it has to offer. How can we lie with the world? How can we taste its delicacies while saying we love the Lord? Instead we are to taste the Lord.

Ps 34:8-10

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

NIV

See the world as the lion, it will grow weak and hungry and it wants to feed upon our soul, to devour us. But as we taste, as we feast upon the Lord, taking refuge in him, we will lack nothing. If our heart is not divided, but earnestly seeking the Lord we will lack no good thing. He tells us over and over again to seek first his kingdom. He tells this in various ways, but the message is the same. Seek the Lord first and foremost with all our heart, and he will make sure we have all we need in this life. It is a constant truth, to trust not in the flesh, in the world’s way, in man’s strength, skills, abilities, education, knowledge or wisdom, but to trust completely in God, with a united heart.