Incline Your Heart
When my son was learning to talk, he started coming to me, holding out his sippy cup and saying, “Minute? Minute?” I knew he often asked for a refill because he wanted attention, not because he was really thirsty. This was a little irritating when I was busy. Instead of immediately stopping what I was doing, I would say, “Just a minute.” How ashamed I was when I realized this happened so often that my baby thought “minute” meant “drink.”
My toddler had been begging me to listen to him, to stop what I was doing and look at him. I had too often been disinclined to give him my immediate attention.
An incline is a deviation from the horizontal or vertical, something tilted rather than level. If a person inclines her head, she bends in a particular direction. Figuratively, to be inclined is to have a preference or a tendency toward something.
Some of our inclinations or tendencies are inborn. I am inclined to be shy in unfamiliar situations. But we can also learn inclinations by practice. I am not a born morning person, but after many years of having jobs that required me to be up and functional early, I am now inclined to wake up around 6 a.m. ready to start the day.
In the English Standard Version of the Bible, I’ve noted at least eight instances when one of the psalmists prays that God will incline his ear toward him, or acknowledges that God does so incline. The writer asks for various things: justice for the fatherless, a hearing for his cause, help and rescue and safety, grace and mercy. God’s Word is filled with promises that he does incline himself to hear us.
It is right, with proper humility, for us to ask God to incline toward us. But it is we who need practice inclining toward God.
The Old Testament is the story of God teaching his people who he is, what he expects of them, and what he knows will happen if they aren’t constantly realigning their inclinations toward him. He sometimes instructed them to build memorials to events that displayed his power and care for them, such as the crossing of the Jordan River in Joshua 3 and 4. At times, God commanded a holiday of remembrance or a memorial sacrifice. He also gave instructions for wearing reminders on their clothing. He even told Moses to write a song and teach it to the people, “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give” (Deut. 31:21 ESV).
David knew that, ultimately, it is God who teaches us right inclination. He wrote, “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” (Ps. 119: 36 ESV) and “Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies!” (Ps. 141:4 ESV).
But David also knew that maintaining the proper inclination was a matter of constant practice:
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word. (Ps. 119:9-16 ESV)
Lord, with David, “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words” (Ps. 17:6 ESV). Give me the strength to guard my way. Help me to always be seeking you, and keep me from wandering. Teach me to delight in your Word, fix my eyes on your ways, and never to forget what I know of you. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Scripture for Reflection
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:23-24 ESV).
Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;
and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.
Confirm to your servant your promise,
that you may be feared.
Turn away the reproach that I dread,
for your rules are good.
Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your righteousness give me life! (Ps. 119:33-40 ESV)
Reach for More
As you think about training yourself to incline your heart toward God, look back at the selections from Psalm 119. Where do you need the most practice? Do you need to store up more of God’s Word in your heart? Do you know God’s statutes and precepts? Are your eyes turned too often to worthless things? Ask God to help you learn to bend yourself toward him more often every day.
Through the gift of a faithful mother and grandmother, grew up knowing Jesus as a friend. Married for nearly two-thirds of her life, there has been time for several seasons, from homeschooling to owning a coffee shop. She has three grown children and nine grandchildren. An element of this season is writing about literature and life at Plumfield and Paideia.
Photograph © Cathal Mac an Bheatha, used with permission
