Incline Our Hearts

by Jennifer Ruth Lynn Garrison | published on May 15, 2024

The Lord our God be with us, as God was with our ancestors; may God not leave us or abandon us, but incline our hearts to the Holy One, to walk in all God’s ways and to keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that were commanded to our ancestors. – 1 Kings 8:57-58 (NRSV, adapted).  

When I think of inclinations, I don’t generally think of hard commitments. I’m inclined more toward rotini than toward angel-hair for example, but if you put a plate of pasta in front of me, I’m likely to eat it whatever the shape. I’m inclined toward dogs more than toward cats, but will happily cuddle any furry little thing. I’m inclined toward summer’s sun more than toward autumn’s leaves, but I can see that both have their pleasures. In other words, my inclines are more gentle slopes than mountain sides, more bunny hills than black diamonds.  

So what does it mean to incline my heart towards God? Inclining my heart requires more than the casual ease of my quotidian inclinations. After all, I can only choose rotini or puppies or even sunshine sometimes. But my heart beats 100,000 times a day, so that is 100,000 times to choose, again, to walk in all God’s ways. Instead of an occasional inclination, an easy stroll downhill, a heart incline is a serious undertaking, a wild ride on the mountain that is the Divine.  

It takes practice, this inclination of the heart. Like graduating from the easy slopes to the expert ones, inclining your heart is not something you can achieve in a day or even a week. It takes a lifetime of returning, again and again, to the holy who is as close as your beating heart.  

Prayer
Holy God, My heart inclines toward you not once or twenty or even 257 times but 100,000 times today. Thump-thump, God-God, thump-thump, God-God. Amen.

Jennifer Ruth Lynn GarrisonAbout the Author
Rev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.