Guard Your Heart...

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23

The most important thing you have is your heart… Your heart provides life within your physical body as well as your connection with the Lord… You are called to guard your heart today because your life (physically and spiritually) depends on it… If you have a heart of hatred and envy you cannot have a connection with the Lord; the bible tells us that God is love and love is something that starts in the heart… The heart is a very sacred and vital organ both to your physical and spiritual life… If we take the analogy of the heart being a pump, we know that whatever is inside the heart will be pumped out (in the physical since this is the blood that travels through our veins, in the spiritual we are talking about whatever Godly or worldly things that reside within)…This is why we are reminded that if we want to live we must keep our heart… The heart is the source, it’s the critical point and it’s the very place you’re most likely attacked by the devil… Luke 6:45 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” How often do you give your heart to others? How many times have you found yourself allowing someone or something to have authority over you by controlling your heart…Whether we have come to realize it or have not comprehended it yet, the heart is the center of our living and being… David wrote in Psalm 37 that if we delight in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart… God knows how critical it is that we maintain our heart; He knows the importance of the heart and has told us that if we make Him first in our lives He will give us the things that we seek… God knows the things that we seek are love, appreciation, acceptance and happiness… Today we are reminded that just because we seek those things doesn’t mean we try to obtain them at all cost… The proverb today reminds us that we must “Keep thy heart with all diligence…” The book of Proverbs was written by the wisest man that ever lived (Solomon), but even he was subdued and humbled when he did not protect his heart… I am a firm believer that doors open in your life, but I am a (n) even firmer believer that not every door is meant for you to walk through… That being said, we must understand that being patient and thorough when it comes to matters of the heart are critical not only in Christianity but in simply living in this world… The bible says that the devil is seeking to steal, kill and destroy and the truth of the matter is that he will only accomplish this by obtaining control of your heart… The proverb says in all diligence, we must make every effort, put every last bit of energy in preserving our heart… The bible records many verses speaking to the importance of the heart and how it is the foundation of our direction… Paul wrote to the Romans about salvation and how it is received through the heart, Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

It is critical that we understand the value that the heart holds… When we say that we truly love someone, that love comes from the depths of our heart, when we look beyond someone’s faults what is displayed is the genuine heart that we possess… Solomon goes on to tell us that the reason we must protect our heart is because the issues of life come from the heart… When we have a heart for something we have the mindset and drive to do it, that in and of itself is important because a lot of us have the heart to do the wrong things… We have allowed the enemy to penetrate our minds so long, that our heart has become poisoned and we have begun to go down the wrong roads in this life… Every turn you make in life is decided by your heart, every decision you make is validated by your heart and if your heart is in the wrong place than that is where you will be also… The heart is serves as the lead for all actions; whether good or bad… This is why (as we read earlier) Luke tells us that the good in a mans heart brigns forth things that are good, while a evil heart bringeth forth evil… Nobody will every truly understand your actions or what motivates you to do things in your life because they cannot see your heart… If Solomon was allowed to go by his eyesight he would’ve anointed David’s oldest brother king; however, in that very passage God tells us how important the heart is, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Your heart will manifest its true desires by the way you conduct yourself in every day affairs… This is not to be misconstrued to say that you will be perfect, but that your actions will be justifiable based on your heart… This is why in the midst of all the sins that David committed God said that “he was a man after mine own heart…” You are guaranteed to make mistakes, but you must make sure that in the process of your failures your heart stays right… As men and women, we see the desires of mankind and the issues of people’s lives by how they act from day to day… If you are a genuine person and a person that desires the right things, your heart will show that by the actions that you choose to engage in… Today is a day where I think it is appropriate that we examine our hearts… We examine the desires of our heart and make sure that we have protected our heart from the devises of the devil… The issues of life are the things that affect us, but also the ways in which we live… An issue is subject, concern or topic; the issues of life are whatever we make them… If we become worried about a job it’s a (n) issue, if we stay up all night because of a relationship, we make it a (n) issue and all this derives because we have allowed our heart to be invaded by things that are not of God… When we allow God in and keep our hearts with all diligence the issues of life become living the way God would have me to live, smiling in the face of adversity and speaking a good/kind word to an enemy… I don’t have to hear you speak or even ask you questions to determine what kind of heart you have; it will be shown in your living… The bottom line is that you must protect yourself and your life… If you’re careless with your heart and give it to any and everybody, it will be shown by how torn and tattered your life is…

BE BLESSED!!!