The Strength of an Undivided Heart –
How the Body Can Repair Itself
The first king of Israel – King Saul – stood a head taller than everybody else, was handsome, and had money. Not a bad choice based upon looks. But Saul had a key weakness in leadership; he kept looking to himself to solve problems, instead of listening to, or seeking the Lord’s will. After a short time, God rejected Saul as king and told the prophet Samuel, who had anointed Saul initially, that he would find a man “after the Lord’s heart.” God had the shepherd boy David anointed king to replace King Saul. But this transition in power took many years. And it placed David in a conundrum.
In a sense, the old kingdom of Saul was falling apart and weakening. In the meantime, David was trying to be a servant to both Saul and God. God was strengthening David’s kingdom and simultaneously allowing Saul’s kingdom to weaken because of his orientation toward self-determination.
The priestly book of I Chronicles describes this transition as a gradual abandonment of the kingdom of Saul and a growing allegiance to David. In some cases, men from Saul’s own tribe of Benjamin abandoned his kingship and followed David. The concern was whether these men would have a “divided heart,” a split allegiance. The answer comes in this verse: “these … helped David with an undivided heart….” (I Chron. 12: 33).
Saul was a man with an apparent conflicted heart. At times, he was repentant; at other times, he was defiant.
Most of us have good intentions and desire to be healthy. But we often lack the discipline because we have a divided heart. The same, of course, is true with living faithfully in other areas of our stewardship life.
Many times when people fail to exercise or eat properly, or have habits which weaken their heart, they end up constricting blood flow to the heart. Even though the heart is responsible for pumping blood to the rest of the body, it is also responsible for pumping blood to itself. As a muscle that perpetually works, it needs to have a rich supply of oxygen and nutrients. Unfortunately, sedentary lifestyles often lead to restricted blood flow. This can lead to a heart attack.
The body has an amazing capacity to occasionally make its own bypasses. This is called arteriogenesis. It happens gradually as blood pressure forces new growth in arteries to feed the heart. The same sort of new growth can also happen in the smallest blood vessels called capillaries. But the stimulus for growth there is hypoxia, lack of oxygen. When the heart suffers from lack of oxygen and weakens because plaque builds up in some arteries, it works to create a new vitality.
New growth happens for Christians when we realize that the same unhealthy patterns are not creating a healthy heart but are actually restricting growth and vitality. As we think about David who is described as “a man after the Lord’s heart,” we consider that what that means is to always submit our desires to God’s. David often did this, but Jesus always did this. David offers a sampling of what it means to be faithful, but Jesus offers salvation. The replenishment of Jesus’ life-giving blood and forgiveness creates an undivided heart.
Prayer: Lord God Almighty, Satan wants me to have a divided heart. Ultimately, he would like my heart for You to die off completely. By Your mercy, protect me from this, move me to serve You always, and renew me by the rich blood of Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
