God will not occupy a divided heart or reign from a divided throne.
There was a young man who was seeking for a suitable life partner and soon enough he found one that He felt was a good match. She seemed to love God and fit the idea of a perfect wife in the eyes of the man. Soon enough, he expressed his love for her and asked her if she would marry him. She said, “Yes, i will marry you, I love you very much, but I also love this other man! Is that alright with you?”
Of course he didn’t agree!
When mortal sinful human beings aren’t ready to share their place in the heart of their loved ones, how does it change when the matter is of spiritual allegiance?
A famous quote says, “God will not occupy a divided heart or reign from a divided throne.”
Consider our hearts to be a tiny house with just one room in it to mark whose territory it is. As long as we cherish sins even if it singles down to 1, it means that Satan is residing in there. Jesus will stand outside the house, continually knocking at the door, waiting for us to open up.
Many a times, we do open up and invite him in, but sadly assume that He will come in any way! He requires our all or nothing, He will not share the throne with the other lover (so to speak) and He will not enter into the house with someone already in there! In order for Jesus to come in, Satan has to leave the house, and empty that precious throne that has always belonged to God from the very beginning. Although He owns us in every sense, He patiently waits outside the door of our 1 BHK and does everything in His power to get us to change our minds and reconsider.
All this doesn’t mean to say that it is up to us to fight Satan out of our hearts, no, not at all! It’s far from the truth is we believe that this battle is for us to fight and with our efforts, Satan will let go of us and allow Jesus to take over! It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us, brings us to recognize our state and leads us to repentance and once we’ve confessed and submitted, He is the One that helps us walk that path of righteousness!
So what does it mean for Jesus to live inside us then?
Well, it means that He takes over; it means that His character is slowly manifested in us and our life is transformed beyond belief! It means that we have pledged our allegiance to Him and He lives so closely with us that life is full of divine joy and exaltations of that great God who made us with His perfect hands!
-Sharon Pallat
