“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. I give thanks to thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever” (Psalm 86:11,12).
What would it look like if I was working for Ben Carson today, setting up speaking appointments, organizing fundraising dinners, and promoting his speeches on social media? You’d probably think I was a strong supporter and he was my choice for president. But what would happen if I switched camps the next week? If I was conducting interviews on CNN supporting the positions of Hillary Clinton? Would you know where my loyalties lay? It would be hard to decipher, wouldn’t it? And maybe, it would make you wonder if I was loyal at all.
It would do little good for either side, Republican or Democrat, if I tried to vote for both candidates. When it comes to politics, you have to be on one side or the other. And the same is true with Jesus. We can’t straddle the fence, putting one foot on Christ’s side and keeping one foot in the world. It’s impossible to belong to Him unless we are His entirely. He wants our undivided love, just as our husband or wife does. They want a full commitment to our union together.
And the same is true with Jesus. He can only come in when we give Him an undivided heart. “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Sin is darkness, and the two cannot exist harmoniously side by side. For one will always be in conflict with the other. “ Which is why Jesus says, “No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
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| It's One Or The Other! |
In the days of Elijah, Israel tried to do both. Through the influence of Jezebel, she bowed the knee to Baal and his worship in the high places. And yet, she had not fully turned her back on the Lord. But for the most part, her feet were planted on the side of Baal. For 3 years, God had withheld the rain, hoping to break the hold that idols had upon His people. Finally, the time had come for a show-down between the Lord and false worship.
Standing upon Mt. Carmel, Elijah called for a test. “Let us offer a sacrifice to our God,’ he said. A bull would be slain and laid upon an altar but no fire would be applied to burn it up. Elijah said, “You call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God” (1 Kings 18:24). The priests were hesitant, but the people agreed to the conditions.
For a whole day, the priests of Baal jumped and danced, yelled at the top of their voices; they even cut themselves. But, Baal did not answer in the silence upon the mountain. Finally, the exhausted priests had to give way to Elijah. It was now his turn to defend the God of Israel.
“Unashamed, unterrified, the prophet stands before the multitude, fully aware of his commission to execute the divine command…In anxious expectancy the people wait for him to speak. Looking first upon the broken-down altar of Jehovah, and then upon the multitude, Elijah cries out in clear, trumpetlike tones, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:21)" (Prophets and Kings, pg. 147).
Not a single one would take their stand for God. A dark cloud of deception held them captive and closed their mouths. How had it come to this? It didn’t happen overnight. Very gradually, Israel hardened their hearts. When God sent messages of warning, they resisted the voice of the Spirit, who called them to return and repent. Every time they chose their own way, their guilt grew stronger and they wandered farther afield from God. So when Elijah called for them to make a decision one way or the other, they seemed powerless to move forward. They answered him not a word.
Israel had no idea whose side she was on. She thought she was on God’s side, but she had chosen another Leader. She didn’t realize that by not choosing the kingdom of God over the kingdom of Baal, she was inevitably choosing to be on Baal’s side. The same is true today. I don’t have to intentionally decide to follow the ways of the world in order to be in the kingdom of darkness. As long as I neglect to choose Christ, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, my life will be controlled by the devil.
“We must invariably be under the control of the one or the other of the 2 great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world” (Desire of Ages, pg. 324). If I neglect to make God first in my life, “Satan will take possession of the heart, and make it his abiding place…Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan, but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome” (ibid).
I must know Jesus on a personal level every single day. I must be in constant connection with Him through prayer and through the study of His Word. And that connection will only be as good as I'm surrendering myself to Christ by following His Word. I must give Him every square inch of myself in order to be His and His alone. So I'm praying, like David, to learn to walk in the ways of the Lord. But at the heart of that prayer is my decision to give God my undivided heart. “Take my life and let me be consecrated Lord to Thee!” Full consecration is my earnest plea.
