Incline My Heart

We do not just wake up one morning entangled in sin.  It is a process that happens little by little.  Little by little we compromise our love for the truth.  Little by little we give pieces of our heart to desires.  Little by little we accept the sin that surrounds us.  Just like Lot’s wife, little by little Sodom begins to live in us.

Genesis 19 records how God provided Lot’s wife a way of escape.  With angels taking her by the hand, she started to flee with Lot and her two daughters.  The angel said, “Escape for your life!  Do not look behind you” (Genesis 19:17).  This is where her obedience stopped.  As God was raining on the city with brimstone and fire, she chose to look back. God has sent us a way to escape too.  Jesus came to rescue us from the evil of this world (Galatians 1:4).  We must obey God’s commands to receive this way of escape provided for us.

Obedience comes from the heart (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 6:5-7).  Lot’s wife did not have a heart of obedience.  Her whole heart was not in it.  She almost escaped to safety, but she disobeyed the command when she turned around.  God punished her disobedience by turning her into a pillar of salt.  God wants our whole-hearted obedience (Psalm 119:2; John 14:15), or we too will be punished (Jude 1:7; Matthew 25:41, 46; Romans 8:13).

If we are not careful (1 Peter 5:8), little by little, we will have a divided heart, and the devil will be living in us (Matthew 6:24). Our plea to God must be as in Psalm 86:11, “Teach me Your way, O Lord…”  The Hebrew word for teach means to point out.  “…I will walk in Your truth…”  To walk in truth takes daily practice.  “…Unite my heart to fear Your name.”  The Hebrew word for unite means to become one. Psalm 119:36 uses the words, “incline my heart.”  Incline means to have an action or attitude that is willing, ready, and wanting to do something. Do we have a heart that WANTS TO DO God’s will, or do we have a divided heart that is wandering? (Psalm 119:10).

Renee Hunter

Scripture taken from NASB (2012)

http://www.teachmethebiblecurriculum.com/

 

5 thoughts on “Incline My Heart

  1. You did a great job Renee! This applies in so many ways. I have heard parents exclaim, “I just don’t have any idea what got into him/her!” Or marriages sometimes gradually fall apart and both mates wonder what happened.

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