Singleness of Heart

Jesus urged his disciples, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  (Matthew 6:33)  As 21^st century Americans, we typically read this verse, “Be sure to make God your first priority and everything else will fall into place.”  But “seeking first his kingdom” has nothing to do with priorities.  God does not want to be a priority among priorities.  He is the I AM, the Alpha and Omega.  “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”  (Isaiah 45:6)  Instead, “seeking first his kingdom” has to do with singleness of heart. 

Many of us avoid singleness of heart by compartmentalizing our lives.  We have our family lives; our work lives; our social lives; our recreational lives; etc., and our religious lives or God-time.  We have then segregated these various areas of our lives into compartments like a super-organized California Closet, with each item sequestered in a specially reserved place.  We are so used to living this compartmentalized life that we are seldom conscious of its existence, though if we stand back and look, it is fairly easy to recognize the different compartments in our lives.  As Christians, we have even promoted compartmentalizing by our mantra:  God first, family second, job next, and so on.

Compartmentalizing is living a lie, because we also delude ourselves into thinking that if we behave ourselves and “pretty-up” one or more of our compartments, that what we do in the other compartments is irrelevant.  This delusion prevents us from recognizing that all areas of our lives are interconnected and fully integrated and that to be morally bankrupt in one compartment is to be morally bankrupt in all of life.

Compartmentalizing is an artificial and deceptive approach to living. Compartmentalizing may be a great way to organize a closet, but it’s a lousy way to live our lives!  When we invite Jesus Christ to be our Leader, he wants to remove our compartments.