guardConsider: Proverbs 4:23

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.” – Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs is laying it out straight. He made it clear at the beginning of this book that the whole point of Proverbs is to help people in life (see Proverbs 1:2-6).

In Proverbs 4 we have a challenge that above all else we’re to guard our heart.

Well, that’s easy, if Jesus lives in your heart, then you’re all good right? And you only need to make sure you “stay saved”. That’s guarding your heart, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

To live out your life that way is limiting the work of God in your life. Giving Jesus our hearts and lives is more than a stay-out-of-hell card. It is life and life more abundantly! And by not guarding your heart, you are giving the enemy an open target to derail that life.

The challenge to guard our heart is not so that we have to follow more rules and do’s and don’ts, but so that we can continue to move forward in this new life we have.

So how do we guard our hearts?

One way is to guard what you look at.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23 “Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!”

What Jesus just said there is, whatever you look at will affect you. And He even said that we can be looking at something thinking it’s light, but really it’s darkness… then He said “how deep that darkness will be”. It’s deep because we do not realize it’s darkness. We have let stuff into our heart unreservedly because we think it’s OK when all along it is bringing destruction and working death in our hearts.

This is not a cry for legalistic do’s and don’ts, but for each of us to raise the bar high in our personal lives so that our hearts will be guarded and we will be able to abundantly live the life Jesus came to give.

Because above all else, guard your heart.