How to Guard Your Heart Above All Else
By Capazin Thornton
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. —Prov 4:23 (NKJV)
Keep your heart with all diligence
The heart speaks of one’s inner self, one’s true self. You are a spirit with a soul, living in a body.
Your spirit is the seat of your conscience and intuition. From your spirit you are capable of communing with and worshipping God.
Your soul is who you are as an individual. It is comprised essentially of your mind, intellect, memory, will, emotions, appetites, passions and desires.
Therefore, above everything that you guard, protect and keep, you must guard your inner self. Because what comes out of your heart or inner self determines your course of life and affects everyone with whom you come in contact.
For out of your heart spring the issues of life
Your inner person is like a fountain that gushes out forces of life to people around you. Those forces are either good or bad.
Christ Jesus said, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”—Mt 12:35
Jesus also said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.”—Mt 15:19
An anomaly occurs when good and bad come out from the same person. This should not be. The apostle James wrote: “A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.”—Jas 3:12 (GNT)
Jesus gives us the solution: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.”—Mt 12:33
How to Guard Your Heart Above All Else
How do you keep, guard, and protect your innermost self above all else? Here are 5 ways:
- Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you (v.24)
Don’t lie. Don’t be deceptive, saying one thing while believing another. And, don’t say things that make no sense. Like, “crazy faith.”
- Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. (v. 25)
Don’t look back. Don’t dwell on the past. Be enthusiastic and optimistic today. Keep moving positively forward into endless possibilities.
- Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established (v. 26)
Think about the direction you are going. Choose the path of life.
- Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your feet from evil. (v. 27)
Don’t compromise. Always do what’s right.
- Keep God’s Word in the midst of your heart.
“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”—Prov 4:20-22 (NKJV)
God’s Word will give you truth from the divine perspective. It will show you how to live, laugh, and love to the fullest.
Treasure God’s Word. And, keep, guard, protect your heart above all else.
***
Please feel free to post your comments.
***
Capazin Thornton is a Christian speaker and author in Orange County, California.
