Don’t let your heart wander.

The Psalmist has an interesting request of God. He asks God to “unite his heart to fear His name.” Why would he ask that unless he knew that his heart tended to get fragmented sometimes and just sort of wander off into oblivion? I’m sure you’ll agree that all our hearts tend to have the same problem. The prophet Jeremiah made matters worse for us by addressing the inherent problem of deceit in our hearts. We may habitually lie to others and find that our hearts start to believe those lies and eventually make it sound like the truth. On the other hand, we may not lie to others, but we lie to ourselves.

The wilderness tends to heighten the waywardness of our hearts. Thanks to nothing going our way, we tend to slip into automatic mode with our heart just following our feelings. Emotions are great as an indicator, but they make for poor drivers. If our lives are led by our emotions, God help us. Our heart is the seat of our passions, affections, emotions and feelings. When we are repeatedly hit by setbacks and struggles, our hearts tend to slip back into old rhythms and paradigms. We get dismissive about the things we were firm and determined about. We start living with an “anything goes” attitude. This can be so harmful for a follower of Christ who desires to be His true disciple.

The way we keep our heart from wandering is by guarding it with all diligence. This means we become intentional about what our affections are moving towards in the midst of our repeated disappointments. This requires discipline in keeping a check on our heart’s motives, agendas and inclinations. It is important to do all of this for our heart's condition determines our life’s direction. The wilderness is a season where our hearts must have a reboot so that all that has taken the place of God is replaced by a deep love for God himself. Like Moses instructed the people repeatedly, we must make the choice to “Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength” today and every day of our lives until we meet Jesus face to face.