Topic: Is It Normal to Have a Divided Heart? – Daily Devotional By Desiringgod Ministry [John Piper Ministry] 18 December 2021

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Is It Normal to Have a Divided Heart?

Today’s question is about the divided heart. The heart, even of the believer, puts up resistance against God. It’s frustrating but not unusual, and it leads to a great question from an anonymous man: “Dear Pastor John, hello. In the episode titled ‘Why Is My Delight in God So Short Lived?’ you suggested one way to make our delights in God last longer. You said, ‘When you read your Bible every day, pause before you read and earnestly, with as much heartfelt longing as you can muster, pray to God that he would come and meet you in the reading of Scripture, and open the eyes of your heart, and show you what is really there, and make himself real, and bring about amazing changes in your life.’ However, when I muster a longing that God would come and meet me, I find my heart is unwilling to welcome God. It seems afraid of meeting God. It does not want to be with God, and this upsets me. On one hand, I want myself to be willing to meet God sincerely and enjoy the sweet time with him. On the other hand, my heart opposes that. Such chaos! What can I do when I find my heart is resisting?”

Let me repeat the key issue as I hear it. He says, “When I muster a longing” — that’s a significant phrase — “that God would come and meet me, I find my heart is unwilling to welcome God. It seems afraid of meeting God. It does not want to be with God. . . . What can I do when I find my heart is resisting?”

So, this is clearly a divided heart. It’s not a heart that’s entirely welcoming, and it’s not a heart that’s entirely resisting. He says, “When I muster a longing for God” — so there is a longing. But he also says, “When I do this, I find my heart unwilling to welcome God.” This heart is in some measure a longing heart for God, and in some measure a resistant heart to God.

Also Read: Open Heaven 18 December 2021–Topic: CONTENTMENT AND GODLINESS 

Now that’s important for him and for us to see. If we don’t see this division in the heart — that it’s a divided heart — we might overstate the problem and think there’s no real root of desire for God in me. Or we might understate the problem and think that our resistance is no big deal. “It can’t be that; I can’t be resisting God,” those who understate the problem might say.

It seems to me that this embattled heart is typical of the Christian life even if we don’t all describe it the way he does, with the language of longing and resisting. None of us as Christians has a consistently united heart in longing for God.

I.O.U.S.

I have often tried to help others in their prayer lives by sharing what helps me — namely, the acronym I.O.U.S. I would commend this acronym to our friend with a focus on the letter U, which is the letter that usually doesn’t get a lot of focus. I’m usually focusing on the S, the O, and the I, but this man needs the U.

“The embattled heart is typical of the Christian life. None of us has a consistently united heart in longing for God.”

Let me work through the other letters quickly first. The letter I stands for incline. “Incline my heart to your testimonies,” we pray with Psalm 119:36. We ask God to take away resistance. We ask God to incline us toward God and his word instead of away from God. And so we admit all our inclination toward God is a work of God. The psalmist would not be praying like this if the inclination was ultimately within our own power. If it were, he wouldn’t be asking God to incline his heart. We plead with God to take our hearts in his hands and to incline them, bend them, toward his word.

Then the letter O stands for open. Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” We need God to work a miracle on the eyes of our heart so that we can see the truth, beauty, value of who he is right there in his word. If we are left to ourselves while meditating on God’s word, we will see nothing of his spiritual beauty and worth.

And then comes the third letter, U, which in this case is going to be especially important. It stands for unite. Psalm 86:11 says, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” What an amazing prayer: “Unite my heart.” So what’s the problem that this psalmist is praying to solve? The problem is a divided heart.

That’s what we’re dealing with here in this question. This man has a longing for God, and he has a resistance to God. His heart is divided, and it needs to be united in its longing for God. So I would say to our friend, “Recognize that you have a divided heart, and plead Psalm 86:11 in prayer: ‘O God, unite my heart to fear your name.’”