Magnetic Attraction
by Richard Griffiths
If you’ve got a compass and a map, and know how to use them, you won’t get lost, however foggy it gets. Your compass will always point to magnetic north. Your map will show you the direction of magnetic north. Just line them up, and away you go.
But if there’s something made of iron or steel that’s close to your compass, it’ll pull it away from the earth’s magnetic field. It won’t point north anymore, and you’ll go astray.
Our heart is like the compass. One way or another, we always tend to follow our hearts. That’s where are desires are, where our feelings are, and where we work things out and make decisions. But our hearts are so easily influenced by the ‘magnetic attraction’ of things other than the will of God.
David realises that his heart could take him in either of two directions: God’s instructions (His map for our lives), or selfish gain. The Hebrew word translated here as ‘selfish gain’ can be (and is) rendered is many different ways in our English Bibles. ‘Turn my heart towards what pleases You rather than what I can get out of it’ probably gets closest to the meaning.
We all have hearts that are so readily bent towards ‘selfish gain’ – what pleases me rather than what pleases Him. After the Flood, God accepted that ‘every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood’ (Genesis 7:21). In Romans 7, Paul wrestles with the reality that ‘in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin’ (Romans 7:25). There’s a magnetic pull which so easily bends our hearts towards what we want and away from what pleases God.
A compass needle is completely passive. It just reacts to the strongest magnetic field. Close to something made of iron or steel, it won’t point north anymore. The fact that we are all weak when it comes to battling against the carnal nature doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that we can do about it. The closer we are to God, and the more we keep away from what leads us away from Him, the more our heart will bend towards what pleases Him.
A damaged compass needle may lose its magnetic strength. It will need to be remagnetised. Our hearts may get damaged through sin and through the knocks of life. They may need to be made more sensitive to what God wants – to be ‘bent towards His instructions’ through confession, repentance, coming back to Him and letting Him be Lord of all.
How about making the prayer below (Psalm 139:23-24 in the Message translation) yours today?
Richard Griffiths When Richard retired from full-time Anglican ministry in Chichester in 2009, he and his wife, Sue, moved to Northumberland. He joined the ministry team at Ellel Grange in 2011, where he and Sue regularly ministered at healing retreats. They are now helping on the "Explore" team. They greatly enjoy walking in the beautiful Northumberland countryside and along the coast. Richard loves seeing God bringing people into a strong personal relationship with Him as their Father and the healing that comes with it.
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