GUARD YOUR HEART
If “the fear of the Lord” is the cornerstone, then “guard your heart” is the first stone on which to build the foundation of our lives.
Our physical heart is the organ that keeps us alive. When our hearts stop, we stop. To live in our physical bodies, we need healthy hearts to drive all our other systems.
Likewise, we need healthy spiritual hearts to drive every other part of who we are… our thinking, choosing, and doing, to keep us spiritually alive. A diseased heart will lead to a diseased life. A diseased life will end in spiritual death, and no one wants to go there!
Proverbs 4:23 NLT
[23] “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
What does the Bible mean by “heart”? What is the counterpart of our physical heart our heart, if it doesn’t refer to the pump that keeps our bodies alive?
The “heart” is difficult to define. Your heart is the real you… your core, your innermost being, your spirit and soul, what you think, what you believe, what you value, who or what you worship, what drives you… all rolled into one. Everything you are, think, and do, flows from your heart.
This makes the heart the vital centre and hub of your being. Just as you must choose what you put into your body to protect your heart if you are to live a long and healthy life so, too, you must guard your inner being from the spiritual diseases that will infect your choices and actions and which will lead to death if you allow your sin-diseased heart to be in charge.
How can we protect our hearts and keep them healthy? Just as we protect our homes by standards of cleanliness and order and by building a fence around our property, so we make our “inside” strong by maintaining truth and integrity and by putting a boundary around our hearts to keep intruders out.
Our first step towards guarding our hearts is to fill our hearts with truth. We are all, unfortunately, born with diseased hearts. Rebellion against God is in our genes. We need a drastic change to turn around and go God’s way.
Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
[9] “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”
God’s remedy for an incurably diseased heart is a heart transplant. He doesn’t apply medicine to fix our rebellious disposition. He puts a new heart inside of us.
Ezekiel 36:26 NLT
[26]”And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
By His grace, the Father made this heart transplant possible by giving His Son to die for our sin in our place. He raised us from spiritual death and changed our hearts from rebel to son.
However, He has also given us the responsibility to maintain our new hearts, first, by feeding them with truth.
Romans 12:2 NLT
[2] “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Since our minds are the entry point through which we feed and maintain the health of our new hearts, what we think will determine the way we function. What we believe is built from what we think, what we value, and what we choose. What we believe determines our desires and our destiny. Our new hearts will want to do God’s will which, for each one of us, is “good, acceptable, and perfect.”
From where can we source truth to steer our lives towards our goal of doing God’s perfect will?
John 17:17 NLT
[17] “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.”
So, the Bible doesn’t only tell us to guard our hearts. It also tells us HOW to guard our hearts by what we pit in and what we keep out.
Philippians 4:8-9 NLT
[8] “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. [9] Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
All of the above are found within the covers of God’s book. The Bible is the best and only text book for living the life that our new hearts demand.
Together with the Word, we are privileged to have its author resident in us. The Holy Spirit is both author and interpreter of the truth which will guide our thinking, believing, and doing throughout our lives.
John 16:13-14 NLT
[13] “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. [14] He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.”
We build the foundation on two truths…
Colossians 2:20 NLT
[20]”You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world…”
Our new lives in Christ have severed the connection between us and the world’s evil influence over us.
Colossians 3:1, 3 NLT
[1] “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
[3] For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Now we must act on the fact of our death to the influences of the world around us. How do we do this? By changing the way we think. I was taught that I cannot think two opposite thoughts at the same time. If my mind is full of worldly thoughts, I cannot think the truth that Jesus is in charge and that I am aligned with Him, not with the world.
Having taken care of our new hearts by feeding them with truth, we must also protect them from squatters and intruders that will attempt to derail us by their evil influence.
Despite God’s grace in giving us a heart transplant, He has not entirely removed the influence of our diseased hearts. The Father intends to train us, during the course of our earthly lives, for our role in His heavenly kingdom. In His wisdom, He has left in us the potential to go our own way! You see, just as our first parent, Adam, had to choose to love God or not by obedience or disobedience, so we, too, must continue to choose to love the Lord by obeying or not obeying Him. Without the right and power to choose, we are robots.
Choosing means that we must select from at least two alternatives. Choosing, therefore, means what we put in, truth or lies, and whom we allow in, friends or enemies.
The world and its ways, under Satan’s dominion, is our arch enemy. John cautions us…
1 John 2:15-17 NLT
[15] “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [16] For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [17] And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
The influence of the world on our lives comes, not only from what we allow to influence from the world’s ways but also from those with whom we choose to keep company.
1 Corinthians 15:33 NLT
[33]”Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”
Google says of this proverb…
“The proverb emphasizes the importance of choosing one’s company wisely, as associating with people who engage in immoral or harmful behaviors can negatively impact a person’s character and values.
” The proverb suggests that spending time with those who have bad morals or engage in negative behaviors can lead to a gradual erosion of one’s own good character and moral principles.”
In simple terms, learning to determine who is our friend and who is our enemy is the process of setting boundaries. We must learn when it is the right thing to say “No!” This part of our duty to guard our hearts is as important as filling our thoughts with God’s Word.
Hebrews 5:14 NLT
[14] “Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
A simple summary of the foundation stone, “guard your heart”, then, is…
Fill your mind with God’s truth, and…
Build a protective boundary around your heart. Only keep company with those who contribute to the health of your heart.