It’s amazing how 35 degrees F feels like a heatwave. I found myself outside shoveling without a coat this afternoon. As I sit here looking out the patio door, the sun is glistening off the pure white snow. God’s creation is amazing – never a dull moment if we’ll stop to enjoy it. Enjoying God’s creation is refreshing to my heart!
I have purposed to spend some time early each Friday morning with the specific intent of listening to what God wants to teach me. This morning, in my listening time, I spent some time meditating on Proverbs 4:20-27. I would like to share something that struck me in my study time this morning and really ties in with the Proverbs passage. When an enemy would strike a city protected by a wall, they would focus on the weakest point, which was the gate. If they could break down the gate, they could gain access to the city. If not held back, they would eventually make their way to the heart of the city. If the heart of the city was penetrated, the city would fall. Our enemy follows the same tactics.
As I read Proverbs 4:20-27, I got a picture of what this looks like for us. These are words of wisdom from a father to his son. He tells his son to be attentive to his words – to incline his ears to hear, his eyes to see, and for him to keep them in his heart. He says that these words of wisdom are LIFE to those who find them and healing to their flesh. Then, he goes on to tell his son to guard his heart with all vigilance for from the heart flows the springs of life. WOW! As we talked about last week, this means putting God’s Word in our hearts. Having God’s Word in our hearts protects our very lives. As my life coach told me yesterday morning, we need to know God’s perspective. Being in God’s Word helps us to know His perspective. The abundant life comes from having God’s perspective in our hearts vs. that of the world.
He goes on to tell his son to watch the words that come from his mouth, to look straight ahead and protect what his eyes see, and to walk the straight and narrow, not swerving to the right or the left. What are the gates of the body? The ears – we can choose to listen to things that honor God or things that are unhealthy (gossip included). The eyes – we can choose to use them for God’s glory or we can choose to see things that we shouldn’t. Our mouths – we can use them to build others up or tear others down. In fact, Luke 6:45 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.“ Satan besieges these gates daily because he is an expert in knowing our weaknesses. He can use any of these avenues to corrupt our hearts and / or damage our witness. An obvious example is the fact of how many men have been attacked by the enemy through pornography. The gates known as our eyes when left unguarded are often attacked, leading to corruption of the heart. We must guard our hearts by being vigilant against what we see, hear, say, and the paths that we take. To do this, we must have God’s Word in our hearts that we may fight the battle at the gates. We’ll be able to discern good and evil (or even good from best) when God’s perspective is in our hearts. We cannot allow the enemy to break through these gates and get to the heart.
Now, obviously we are told to be in the world, but not of the world. And, unless we are called to me missionaries in the mountains of Montana to the moose and grizzlies (I’ll be the first to sign up…), we are going to see things and hear things that don’t honor God. However, it is what we choose to do with these things that matters. Do we choose to destroy them before they get to our hearts or do we let them penetrate the heart, thus affecting our actions? Each one of us must make these decisions for ourselves. Whatever our situation, the key to guarding our hearts is to seek God, and to hide His word in our hearts. He loves you and wants to draw you to Himself. We can run to Him, who is our refuge, strong tower, mighty fortress. With His help, we can truly guard our hearts.
Unless God leads me in a different direction, next time we’ll follow up to this by taking a look at Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
May we guard our hearts, the wellspring of life!
