“Therefore, do not worry, saying ‘what shall we eat?’ or ‘what shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:31-34
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God: and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phil.4:6-7
We are commanded by the Lord not to worry or to be anxious about our lives like the heathen. He says that we are rather to seek His kingdom and His righteousness and that HE will add to our life all the things that are needful as we sojourn on earth. He tells us to pray about everything rather than to get anxious. By doing this, God will keep our hearts and minds in perfect peace. It sounds like the Lord is telling us to stop all activities that make us anxious and simply to pray. That may be part of the picture, but it goes much deeper than that.
Most of us know what the symptoms of worry or anxiety are and many people determine to make outward life changes to rid themselves of this “sickness,” only to find themselves right back in the vicious cycle of its power. Few really know what the actual biblical cause of anxiety is and therefore cannot get free of its dominion. What does it really mean to be anxious about our lives?
The key to understanding this “dis-ease” is revealed in the little, yet powerful word, “worry” – in the original language (merimnao). This word which comes from the root, mer (part), can be linked to distraction, apportioning, dividing, disuniting or making a difference between. So, when we hear the Lord telling us not to worry, He’s not telling us to simply stop all our outward activities or thoughts regarding the future, but He’s going deeper into the true condition of our heart.
God is concerned above all else that our heart be not distracted or divided, much like a pie that is sliced and distributed between the many activities and people in our life: one section given to our job, one for our spouse, one for God, one for ministry, etc. In the end, everyone and everything receives a portion, but the Lord is just one slice of the pie and not the whole, if even that! We have become anxious because we have lost that wholeness and peace that comes from fulfilling our first duty, which is to love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, ALL our mind and ALL our strength. An undivided heart is actually the only true path towards fulfilling the first commandment.
A divided house/heart shall not stand. The enemy knows this and works hard to get us to divide up and apportion the areas of our life so that we will not have the power that comes from an integrated heart. When our heart gets divided up into shares, we also lose the deep sense that God is One and that we are to love Him in that oneness and our neighbor as ourselves (in that same union love). God says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Luke12:34. If our treasure is in the Lord alone, our heart will be whole and possessed by Him, but if our treasure is here and there and everywhere, set on temporal or earthly things, we will find that we have scattered and lost our heart, our center in God alone. God will be just one segment of the pie (our heart) to be shared among many other people and things. He will not be the exclusive Owner with the exclusive rights to our heart and life. Consequently, we will not have the power to love God as He fully desires; nor will we be able to love others with that same divine love which He desires to shed abroad in our hearts.
The result of this dividedness and distraction is a disturbed (anxious) heart/mind that is thrown into tumult and much activity that drags us all around, a heart that cannot be still, sitting and listening at the Master’s feet. Much of the Ecclesia has this same anxiety and frenzied activity that comes out from a divided heart and mind that we see in the world and it ought not to be so.
Most people, especially men, wear different hats for different aspects of their personality. One hat is for husband, another for occupation, another for father, for friend, ministry, and so on. Most people think this is very normal, but it actually comes from a divided and compartmentalized heart that has its roots in the old sinful nature. It is a fear of letting go, of cutting off the foreskin of the heart where God desires to do a healing work that will bring integration and oneness. Jesus had a perfect undivided heart when He walked on earth and He came to restore that new heart to the man that He created, but who through sin, fell into dividedness.
Many years ago, the Lord showed me in a beautiful revelation, how beautifully and completely integrated man was in all his being when he was created in the image of God. His body, soul and spirit were functioning in complete union and harmony. His heart, will and mind were integrated and functioning in perfect divine order and oneness. His heart was a beautiful perfect one, a habitation for the ONE TRIUNE GOD. But sin shattered it all. His heart got divided. His heart and mind separated and were at war. His body functioned independently of soul and spirit. His soul no longer bowed to the Spirit in perfect oneness, but usurped and overrode divine order. Everything fell apart. Redemption brings us back into God’s wholeness, and oneness within ourselves. It is this wholeness that restores us again to complete dependency on Him and not on our old shattered self and makes us able to also be united with one another in that same oneness.
