“Unite My Heart”

Dear children, have you ever thought it strange that not everybody in the world loves and obeys God? If you are growing up with Christians, you are learning about your wonderful Father in heaven. You are also learning about how the One who made the whole universe came to this world as a little baby. He lived as a child, became an adult, and lived a perfect life. He finally allowed Himself to be hung with His hands and feet nailed onto a big wooden cross. Why? It was so that we could be forgiven for all our mistakes and wrong thoughts, words, and actions.

Maybe you are also learning about the Spirit of God, who is here today. Even though He is invisible, you can see how He works. The Holy Spirit helps us and others change from being selfish and naughty to become kindhearted and obedient.

But now, what about those people we mentioned who do not obey God? Why don’t they love Him as we do? Some just plain choose to be stubborn and refuse to allow the Spirit of God to soften their heart. But others honestly don’t know any better. Part of our duty is to help them see and understand God’s love for them.

Will things always be this way? There is an interesting passage in the Bible that says: “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name” (Psalm 86:9).

In the hour of judgment after Christ’s return, everyone who has ever been born will finally admit that the Creator had been good and fair to them. They were not made as robots—they had been given freedom of choice and they will admit that in their lifetime God had given them plenty of chances to be saved. Why will they then worship Him at that moment? The next verse explains the simple reason why:

“For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone” (verse 10).

When the psalmist thought about this carefully, he also felt inspired with the fact that he would like to learn more about God. So, he prayed, “Teach me thy way, O Lord.” Then he also made a promise, “I will walk in thy truth.”

But then he suddenly prayed for help: “unite my heart to fear thy name” (verse 11).

“Unite my heart?” What does it mean to unite something? It shows that something that has somehow been broken or divided needs to be put back together again.

Do you have a divided heart? Many of us do. We want to follow God and obey what He says, but there’s another part of us that somehow wants to do whatever we want. Does everyone experience this? Most have faced this problem at some time.

But when Jesus was on earth, He made sure that His heart would not be divided, even when things were extremely hard for Him. At the time of greatest crisis when He knew He had chosen to allow Himself to be separated from His heavenly Father and suffer a horrible death to pay the price for our sins, He prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39).

Jesus did not want to have a divided heart—and neither should we. Whatever the cost, whatever the suffering, whatever we must face, let us ask for God’s help to have a united heart to fear His name. Like everything else He can do, He can help us with that, too!