God’s Word advises us to guard our heart; yet, it also states that our heart is deceitful and wicked (Proverbs 4:23; Jeremiah 17:9). It also warns us that out of our heart comes all the issues of our life. The thoughts we think, and the words we speak often come from our heart (Matthew 12:34, 15:18-19).
One reason that God warns us to be on guard is so we do not forget what He has taught us and the miracles we have witnessed at His hand. He encourages us to remember the stories and to share them with our children and our grands in order to show them how real our Heavenly Father is in our life (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Once we completely surrender our life to God’s control, we do not guard our heart by setting up boundaries around our life to keep people from hurting us, or to prevent us from making silly mistakes from which we will reap consequences for the rest of our life. These restraints do not keep our heart safe, just restricted.
We trust the Lord to heal our heart whenever it is broken. We seek the Lord for wisdom about whom we share our heart. We can get dazzled by a charming smile, or a “bad boy” that really is bad for us. God has perfect plans for our life, and when we seek His perspective each moment of our day, this helps us to securely safeguard our heart.
God also puts us in His Body in order to help us to protect our heart. As we stay connected to His Spirit and to fellow Believers, we strengthen our union with God’s Spirit, and our heart blooms where He plants us (James 5:16; Romans 15:1; 1 Corinthians 12). God cares about everything pertaining to our life and our heart.
It is easy to trust God with part of our heart; however, it is extremely hard to trust in God with our whole heart, and to serve Him with our whole heart. When we do, however, He guides our heart along the right path, and He turns our whole heart away from sin and disobedience to His Spirit (2 Kings 10:31; Matthew 22:37-40; Proverbs 3:5-6).
Prayer:
Father God, we want to love You with our whole heart, unguarded in serving You, but definitely guarded from sin, Satan’s deception, the world’s attraction, and the desires of our flesh (Mark 12:30). Teach us with Your wisdom to discern between the guidance of Your Spirit and the whispers in our heart by these deceitful sources (Proverbs 23:19).
We want to have a heart of Your unconditional agape love, of understanding, of compassion for our self and others. Our heart - our soul, is the source of our emotions that construct our behavior. We do not want to be led by the human feelings of our heart, but by what the heart symbolizes – our life-giving source (Proverbs 4:23-26). Thank You for making us such intricate creatures and for leading us into Your presence forevermore.
Thought for the Day:
One major symptom of our heart that we must particularly guard against is growing weary and giving-in to feelings of heartsickness, because the feelings in our heart influence the health of our body, soul, and spirit, which has a monumental effect on our health, relationships, vocation, ministries, and community involvement.
