Divided Heart

"What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?"  


The plain and simple fact is that when we are faced with an inner conflict, it's difficult to pin point what's going on.  We are left confused.  We vacillate from one thing to another and we are left more confused than ever before.  Usually, the longer we let it be that way, it becomes a tangled web in our hearts that at times we just don't know how to get ourselves out of.  So, we stay and leave things undone.  It's a mess that we live with and can't stand.  Some of us tend to hide from it or rather run away from it by distracting ourselves.  In truth, we are not honest enough with ourselves.  We allow the war to go on because we don't want to let go of that which we believe brings us pleasure.  The Lord jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.  God will not let you be okay with destructive habits or pleasures in your life.  

“In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom...so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.” Daniel 2:41-42

In your relationship with the Lord and in checking your heart, do you see your life in this verse?  Sometimes it gets so confusing why we don't have that satisfaction in Christ that Scripture talks about.  We wish we could have that joy of the Lord and that peace of God that surpasses all our understanding.  Sure, your salvation stands, you have a foundation that is laid that cannot be shaken.  You may also be doing all the nice things good little Christian children do.  But the Lord says He delights in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  Is it any wonder then that parts of you are so brittle?  Why are you left striving, as if what you have and where you are are not enough? 

Just as clay and iron don't mix well together, it's time to be honest with yourself.  If you've received Christ as your Savior, you have passed from death into eternal life, you have moved from darkness into light, you are no longer living under the authority of the forces of darkness in this world, but have been adopted into God's holy family and sealed with His Holy Spirit as His child.  You are separated from this world, you are now a child of God and not a child of Satan.  Your allegiance is to God, not to anybody else, including yourself.  You have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you, and the life which you now live in the flesh, you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself up for you.  "But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless principles to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?" 

“Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.” Matthew 12:25

The Lord calls us to gather together with Him wholeheartedly, not partially.  If you want to live a life filled with both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, it will not stand and you will reap what you sow.  For God's kingdom is the only kingdom that will not end, it will endure forever.  The Lord calls us to flee our adulterous ways and come home to Him, our Husband, our Maker.  You and the Lord knows what is dividing your heart, what it is that is causing you inner conflict and warring against your soul.  The Lord calls us to turn back, repent & bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Hear, O sons & daughters, the instruction of a Father and give attention that you may know understanding.  The Spirit God made to dwell in you is your Teacher.  Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.  Listen to Him.  Defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold.  Scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, "Be gone!"  Then He, the Lord your God, will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous!  

“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” Matthew 12:30

Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love.