GUARD YOUR HEART

GUARD YOUR HEART
February 12, 2018

Prayer: Dear Lord, Thank You for wanting to protect my heart and encouraging me to guard it carefully. I am grateful for the life energy you put into my heart and I want to use it all for You and Your kingdom. I love You and Your ways.

Scripture: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:20 23 NIV

As we tend to focus on love, valentines, and hearts during this time of the year; we always turn to see what God has to say about these subjects. The world has so much to say, and sometimes so much to say that is incorrect according to God’s standards about love and our hearts. We need to know and focus on God’s point of view. During a day (or week) that says, “Give your heart and affections away,” God’s Word says, “Above all else, guard your heart.”

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible has this to say about our verse:

“Keep thy heart with all diligence. God, who gave us these souls, gave us a strict charge with them: Man, woman, keep thy heart; take heed to thy spirit, Deu. 4:9. We must maintain a holy jealousy of ourselves, and set a strict guard, accordingly, upon all the avenues of the soul; keep our hearts from doing hurt and getting hurt, from being defiled by sin and disturbed by trouble; keep them as our jewel, as our vineyard; keep a conscience void of offence; keep out bad thoughts; keep up good thoughts; keep the affections upon right objects and in due bounds.”

I wanted to let you read the commentary for yourself instead of me paraphrasing it since I thought it gave a pretty clear explanation of what it means to “guard.” Can you think of some other ways or means by which you need to guard your heart?

Secondly, is the reason we guard our heart; “for it is the wellspring of life.” Matthew Henry continues his explanation by saying, “A good reason given for this care, because out of it are the issues of life. Out of a heart well-kept will flow living issues, good products, to the glory of God and the edification of others. Or, in general, all the actions of the life flow from the heart.”

Give an example of how all the actions of the life flow from the heart. What gets you up in the morning to come to work? What helps you persevere? What comes out of your mouth in times of conflict? The Bible says, “From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” If you guard your heart and truly have God’s ways and love in your heart, then your mouth and life will be proof of that in times of trouble and victory. In other words, your mouth is a reflection of your heart and your heart for God.

The world bids you to give your heart away, to be ruled by your affections and emotions. The world says, “Follow your heart.” God says, “Guard it.” It may be that you or someone you know would rather spend Valentine’s Day with a casual love or anyone will do, just so they do not have to spend it alone. Friends, remember that God is love and He loves you so much you cannot even fathom how wide, deep and enduring His love is. If you know someone who needs to hear that this week, I beg you to tell them. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important of all relationships and that is a love worth sharing.

Matthew Henry concludes his commentary on this verse by saying,” Our lives will be regular or irregular, comfortable or uncomfortable, according as our hearts are kept or neglected.”

My prayer for you is that you would never neglect your heart but rather guard it; knowing that out of it flows the issues of life as a reflection of our relationship with God.