Unite My Heart

“Teach me Your way, O Lord, so I can walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to live in awe of Your name” (Psalms 86:11).

You know how you feel when you’re on vacation—free, joyful, adventurous, rested, and wholly alive. That’s how you’re supposed to live every day. But for most, the moment you get back to “reality,” you feel shattered again. For a number of years I felt so broken it would take nearly the entire vacation to feel some sense of wholeness—just in time to return to face the circumstances that were breaking me. 

Take a moment and assess your own state of union—within yourself, and with God. In Psalm 86, David asks God to “unite his heart,” to restore the pieces of himself and become so whole he can see God’s truth and live in the awe of His presence.  

When you feel rejected, hurt, discouraged, bitter, or angry, it can break you apart. You protect the pieces as best you can, putting up walls around each fragment. But that means stagnation, and living less than your true self. Instead of blessing your life and everyone in it, you become guarded, distrustful, even paranoid. You bury the true you trying to keep anyone from stealing what’s left. 

Choose to be whole again. Put your hope in Jesus over and over until it’s no longer a wish but a mindset. Thank and praise Him until your perspective shifts and you see everything and everyone with the love, joy, and peace He does. Allow yourself to be passionate again—instead of becoming exhausted trying to protect yourself from life, allow yourself to feel and experience and adventure. Be who you really are. Be the vacation you.