Oh, to be whole-hearted! To have every aspect of your inner being aligned in one clear direction, with no parts of you sabotaging you becoming and doing all that you were created for. What a relief that would be. Imagine what kind of joy you would experience and how much you might accomplish with none of your energy sidetracked in managing competing parts of you.

That’s how God created you and me to be – completely whole, with an undivided heart. Can you imagine Adam and Eve ever saying to themselves in the Garden of Eden, “Part of me wants to do this, but part of me doesn’t?” Not at all.

But of course that all changed with the entrance of sin and evil. Our hearts became fractured, divided, “unstable in all [our] ways” (James 1:8). Not only have we come to be at war with each other and with God; we’ve declared war against ourselves. As Paul said, “I don’t understand myself! I don’t do what I want to do, and find myself doing what I don’t want to do” (paraphrase of Romans 7:15).

Yes, there is an answer. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).

But God doesn’t drop that kind of wholeness on us as a dollop from heaven; our whole-heartedness is a process. And intentionally bringing every part of you into His presence is an amazingly powerful way you can cooperate with what God is doing in you.

Your Different Parts

How whole-hearted do you feel right now? If you’re 100% integrated, differentiated, healed, and looking like Jesus, then you can skip this. But for the rest of us, there are at least two helpful ways to think about the various parts of you.

The first is that you are all the ages you have ever been. You didn’t wake up one day and decide to have issues; something (probably many things) happened to you. You learned things from your environment and developed ways of relating and surviving that are less than healthy and godly. There is an inner child in you that needs Jesus, that needs healing.

Every baby is born into the world looking for love, connection, care, attunement. Even well-meaning parents have faults, not to mention the likelihood you entered a family with some major dysfunction. Those young parts of you that were hurt will keep relating in the damaging ways they learned until they find healing and integration.

This leads to the other way of thinking about our parts. Psychologists call this Internal Family Systems. In short, it’s a way of thinking about the functions different parts of you have taken on – for good reason.

Parts of you are hiding away, carrying shame or pain, closed off. You may hope they stay hidden forever. Other parts of you carry an arsenal of weapons, ready to unleash them at a moment’s notice when anything that might be threatening comes along. And other parts of you are just trying to hold you all together.

That cadre of parts is like a family in your soul. And if you’re reading this, that internal family is likely quite dysfunctional. How exhausting!

Wouldn’t it be a relief to not have those parts fighting with each other or fighting for control? What to do?

Toward Whole-Heartedness

God created us as integrated human beings, to be whole in body, mind, soul, and spirit. And that’s what He has promised us through the redemption that comes through Jesus:

• “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20).
• “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them” (Jeremiah 32:39).
• “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

Cooperating with God in your process of integration is not a simple 1-2-3 steps. But here are some important aspects you can grab ahold of right now:

1. Get curious. When you feel “undone,” instead of ignoring that part of you or buying into self-contempt, ask questions. A few to consider; how old does that part of you feel? What emotion is that part of you feeling? What does that part of you need most right now; safety, rest, courage, understanding, love?
2. Lovingly lead your parts. You do not have to be at the mercy of an undivided heart. If you’ve said Yes to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is living inside you! Imagine the Holy-Spirit-indwelt core of you as the part of you who is in charge. That core of you can lovingly notice and lead the other needy, angry, or hurting parts of you, rather than letting those parts be in charge.
3. Bring that part of you to Jesus. Jesus knows all about you, but He won’t force Himself on you – or any part of you. That’s your role. Imagine the Holy-Spirit-indwelt core of you bringing that part of you to Jesus – the hurt little child who’s hiding, the angry tense part who’s trying to control, the exhausted part that’s been trying to hold everything together, or the sad part who feels lost and alone.

As you bring all your parts to Jesus, He will minister healing and integration to you. This is best done with someone or a few others who can be “Jesus with skin on” for you. I pray you experience both wonderful transformational moments and a life-long journey of becoming more and more whole, as God intended you to be.

May you know the joy of becoming ever more whole-hearted.

Your turn: Are you aware of divided or incompletely healed parts of your soul? How is that affecting you? What part do you need to bring to Jesus?

Want more? This week’s podcast is our monthly feature with Avery and Zion Montgomery, talking about finding wholeness for the various parts of us.  Listen or watch.

Tweetables: why not share this post?

• We have a divided heart. We are not all whole. Parts of us are at war with other parts. There is a process to find healing and integration in bringing all your parts to Jesus.  Tweet that.

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