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“An Undivided Heart” 

Psalm 86:11-17 

This week I experienced what I can only describe as my own personal version of hell. I had to go to the AT&T store and upgrade my phone.  

Now, to be fair, the employee that helped me was wonderful. He was patient, knowledgeable, and helpful as I explained my situation. The problem wasn’t him. The problem was me. Just when I’d finally gotten comfortable using my old phone, I had to start over with a new one.  

As I was getting everything set up, one of the first things I did was start turning notifications off. I don’t need every app buzzing at me throughout the day demanding my attention. News alerts. E-mails. Spam Calls. Random reminders I set three years ago. Every one of them wanting just a few seconds of my attention. But we all know how quickly a few seconds can turn into an afternoon lost to watching hippos eat entire watermelons at the San Antonio Zoo!  

It occurred to me as I was setting up my phone that attention has become one of our most valuable commodities. There are countless people, companies, advertisers, and algorithms competing for it every single day.  

Which makes me wonder if that’s also true spiritually.  

It isn’t usually one dramatic event that pulls us away from God. It’s a hundred smaller voices asking for just a little piece of our hearts. Our worries. Our schedules. Our responsibilities. Many of them are good things. But over time they can leave us spiritually fragmented. 

Which is why David prays one of the most beautiful prayers in all of Scripture in Psalm 86: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.  

Here we see that David understood something long before smartphones or notifications ever existed.  

See, the human heart has always had a tendency to become divided.  

That’s why this prayer in Psalm 86 is so remarkable. David doesn’t pray, “Lord, give me more strength.” He doesn’t pray, “Lord, defeat my enemies.” He doesn’t even begin by asking God to change his circumstances.  

Instead ,he asks God to change him.  

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.  

That word “heart” means something much richer in Scripture than our emotions. When we hear the word heart, we usually think about our feelings. But in the Old Testament, they understood the heart as the center of the whole person. It is where our thoughts, desires, decisions, and commitments all come together. The heart is the control center of our lives. 

Which means David is paying that God would bring all parts of his life in alignment with God’s will for his life.  

We know exactly what having a divided heart looks like.  

Part of us wants to trust God, while another part wants to be in control. 

Part of us wants to forgive, while another part wants to hold on to the hurt.  

Part of us wants to rest in God’s promises, while another part keeps rehearsing tomorrow’s anxieties.  

That’s a divided heart.  

And the remarkable thing is that David doesn’t shame himself for having one. He simply brings it to God in prayer.  

One of the things I love about that prayer is that David doesn’t ask God for a shortcut. He asks for a teacher. Think about that for a moment. Throughout Scripture, God is constantly described as one who teaches his people. Gd taught Israel in the wilderness. Jesis taught his disciples along dusty roads. The Holy Spirit continues to teach the church today. Our faith is about apprenticeship. It’s about learning to live differently because we’ve learned to walk with Jesus. And learning takes time. 

I mentioned earlier that I upgraded my phone this week. 

I’ve carried my old phone for years. It had been with me through trips to England, Japan, Scotland, Guatemala, Kentucky, and Virginia. I knew that phone so well I could almost use it without looking. My fingers knew were every app was. I didn’t really have to think about it at all.  

Then I got a new phone. 

Suddenly everything felt unfamiliar. The settings looked different. The apps had moved. I found myself having to re-log into every app I had ever downloaded. I’d instinctively reach for something where it used to be... and it wasn’t there.  

It’s amazing how quickly our habits become second nature.  

And I wonder if that’s part of what David is praying about.  

David understands that our hearts also develop habits. We learn ways of thinking. Ways of reacting. Ways of making decisions. Ways of handling conflict. Ways of dealing with fear.  

After enough years, those habits become so automatic that we don’t even notice them anymore.  

We instinctively worry before we pray.  

We instinctively defend ourselves before we listen.  

We instinctively assume the worst instead of hoping for the best.  

Which is why David doesn’t simply pray “Lord, fix my heart.” He prays “Teach me.” Because he knows that what has been learned can also be relearned.  

That’s true of our phones. It’s true of our bodies. And it’s true of our hearts.  

Little by little, God teaches us to respond differently than we once did as God’s Spirit reshapes the habits and instincts that guide our lives.  

We learn to pray before we panic.  

We learn to forgive before bitterness takes root.  

We learn to listen before we speak.  

We learn to trust before we try to control everything ourselves.  

None of that happens overnight.  

In fact, if you’ve been following Jesus for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that God has a way of teaching the same lessons more than once. Just when we think we’ve mastered trust, another season arrives that asks us to trust again. Just when we think we’ve learned patience, life presents another opportunity to practice it. Just when we think we’ve learned forgiveness, someone wounds us in a new way.  

That’s why David prays for God to teach him his ways. Because life will happen to all of us and teaching takes time.  

Now it would be unwise for us to conclude that the intent of David’s prayer is only to make him a better student. Everything he has prayed so far has been leading to one final request. Give me an undivided heart to revere your name.  

Notice the adjective David uses. He doesn’t ask for a braver heart. Or a smarter heart. Or even a happier heart. He asks for an undivided heart.  

I think that’s because David understands something that all of us eventually discover. The greatest threat to our faith isn’t usually that we’ll wake up one morning and decide we no longer believe in God. More often, our hearts become divided little by little. Our love for God slowly becomes one love among many.  

David knows that battle for our attention doesn’t belong somewhere out there. It begins right here- in the human heart. 

So David prays for an undivided a heart. A heart so focused on God that every other love in our lives takes a backseat to the love we have for God.  

Now David’s undivided heart didn’t stop him from loving his family. Or caring about the people of Israel. Or from carrying the enormous responsibilities that come with being king.  

The same is true for us. God has given us so many good gifts. We love our families. We care about our work. We care about our neighbors. We enjoy friendships, hobbies, vacations, and all the ordinary blessings that fill our lives. None of these things are competitors to God. They are gifts from God.  

The danger comes when these good gifts begin to take first place in our hearts. That’s how our hearts become divided. But when God remains at the center, something remarkable happens. We begin to love everything else better.  

We become more patient with our families because we have first received God’s patience. We become quicker to forgive because we know we have been forgiven. We become less fearful because our security rests not in changing circumstances but in God’s unchanging love.  

An undivided heart isn’t a perfect heart.  

It isn’t a heart that never struggles.  

It is simply a heart that has one supreme allegiance.  

A heart that, day by day, keeps returning to the God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.  

This week I’ll probably continue learning how to use my new phone.  

I’ll discover features I didn’t know were there. I’ll accidentally open the wrong apps a few more times. I’ll probably have to ask someone younger than me how to do something that should be obvious, but I can’t quite figure it out.  

Eventually, though, what feels unfamiliar today will become second nature.  

But as I reflected on that this week, it occured to me that while I can learn to use a new phone on my own, I cannot give myself an undivided heart. Only God can do that.  

We will always need God to keep teaching us. 

We will always need God to keep shaping us. 

We will always need God to gather the scattered pieces of our hearts and draw them back to himself. 

The good news is that the God to whom David prayed is the same God we worship today. 

The God who is merciful and gracious. 

The God who is slow to anger. 

The God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. 

The God who, through Jesus Christ, never stops teaching, forgiving, and forming his people. 

So this week, when your heart feels pulled in a dozen different directions... 

When the worries of life begin to compete for your attention... 

When you aren't quite sure which way to go... 

Remember David's prayer. 

Better yet, make it your own. 

"Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name." 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.