“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude.Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.”Philippians 4:6-8 TPT.

These verses are, without a doubt, a collection of the most amazing spiritual advice that I’ve heard in years. I think if we all took the time to apply what these 2 verses in Philippians say, there would be a world-wide transformation in the Body of Christ! What Paul is saying here is we need to let our minds, hearts and spirits be fixed on the Lord – no matter what is clamouring all around us for our attention. 

What does that mean? Whenever we find ourselves think-worrying etc. we give whatever it is to the Lord and leave it with Him, and we thank Him for His help. That’s the secret of living within the shelter of the most High God. It isn’t that we always have to have exactly the right attitude, now, living this new life He gave us is about knowing where our help comes from and turning to Him. Our God must never be an add-on, His Ways are our NEW life now. 

The problem we face is that it is way too easy to have a divided heart.  A divided heart sadly has a part- time God! People living like this consider what the Lord wants only when they have time, or when they need Him. Knowing our God and obeying Him is not a hobby, to be picked up and put down. I’m sure we can all see the hole in that kind of thinking. Here’s a good thing to pray:“Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on Your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your Name. I will praise You, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your Name forever.” (Psalm 86:11)

A lack of Godly fear and reverence can also produce a divided heart. Especially if we do not put the Lord in His proper place in our lives and hearts. He is to be enthroned in our lives, through our demonstrated obedience to Him. Other people must see HIM through us! Christ Himself is the perfect example of this in action, as we watch Him relate to Almighty God personally. And if we take the time we can also study just how He related to others. Christ’s life is our example. 

Think about Lazarus, Martha and Mary – the Lord Jesus was close friends with them. BUT! God’s WILL took precedence even over that special friendship – Jesus chose to do what He did, God’s way. Their close friendship did not drag Him to the women’s side when their brother died. He waited for His Father’s timing. This shows us how obedience works. Otherwise we might easily forget ourselves and start telling the Lord what we think He should do! Remember, we serve Him, God does not serve us!  At the same time we need to be prayerfully careful that any disappointment in our lives, does not turn into disappointment with Him and His choices for us. Or we can end up presumptuous, like satan did. 

We have been reborn for a reason. Now we are living and learning to continually draw upon that new life within us. It is impossible to live this new life in our own strength. That’s why our focus is so important! We are progressively learning to lean on Him. As we live this way we will acquire soft hearts that are tender-hearted towards the Lord, as well as others. There is a reason we are told to fix our mind on what is good, right, pure and honourable. This world around us will drag us under and extinguish all our God-given hope!

Obedience to what He has already told us in His book, plus  our chosen, personal God-given obedience, as well as our abiding love for Him, are essential. These things will help us keep our focus on what’s good right and just. Our first response in any given situation needs to be:  ‘What does the Lord want here?’ Lately every time I ask Him that question, the Holy Spirit says to me …”trust Him.” At this moment in my life learning to trust is my learning curve! 

Our obedience is motivated by faith, and that obedience is one of the greatest tools to help us increase our confidence in His Ways. We will see Him personally, at work on our behalf. Nobody has to preach at us, now we have our own testimonies! If our thought life is weaving about between the things of this world and what He says – we will lose our clarity. I am reminded of a grand old hymn: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and Grace.”Almighty God is revealed to us and through us, when we allow Who He is, to take over our focus. Bye. 👋