Guarding Your Most Important Asset

Our Physical Heart 

Inside our body, our heart is protected by a ribcage. That cage serves as protection for the heart so that it can provide the necessary function of transporting blood, oxygen, and nutrients and carrying away toxins. Without that cage, our heart would be at risk every time we fell or bumped up against something or got hit across our chest. Maybe our hearts might fail under the sheer weight laying directly on it. Most of us would probably not survive.

Additionally, most adults don’t take active measures to protect and keep their heart healthy through nutrition and exercise. And even though the ribcage around it performs an critical role, it alone isn’t enough. What we do or don’t do; what we expose ourselves to or don’t expose ourselves to; whether good or bad, healthy or unhealthy; is vitally important to the well-being of our heart and to our well-being as a whole.

The Spiritual Heart

Although vitally important to this life, the physical hearth is  not our most important asset. There’s another heart- one that transcends this body and life. When we talk about guarding our hearts and loving someone with our whole heart, we aren’t talking about the muscle in our body. We are talking about the seat of our affections, emotions, and feelings. What’s amazing is how uplifted and light the heart feels when we are happy and how extremely heavy it feels when we are sad. It really feels like our heart is broken.

(Proverbs 4:23 says:

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (KJV).

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (AMP).

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV).

We have three different words used to communicate the same visual image- the image of an armed guard keeping watch over an important asset- like a precious artifact in a museum or a VIP (very important person- according to the world’s standards). Solomon is urging us to stand guard over our hearts; to watch and protect it; to keep it from those things that threaten to steal, kill, and destroy it.

How we feel in our heart, leads us to do what do we do, in all aspects of our life. That feeling 

is based on the story we tell ourselves. Either we are passive towards that story and just flow with it or we are active in the story we tell and lead our heart in an intentional way. Either way, our actions tells a story about what we believe to be true in our hearts.

Be on guard for anything that threatens to steal your heart and affections. Our hearts are easily stolen by good looking and pretty people and things; by smooth talking people that feed our ego; by temporary pleasures, etc.  We are often driven by how things make us feel. Our hearts work in concert with our minds, though. We can’t afford to relax and let our guard down.

The Word of God will help keep things in perspective. More money, a nicer car, a bigger home, riches and wealth, popularity and fame, will never permanently satisfy our soul’s longing. Only Jesus can do that.

Watch (be on the lookout) for those things that threaten to kill you- those things that draw you away from the glory of eternal life in Jesus Christ. I don’t discount that life can be hard and everyone can’t handle things the same way. There are lots of ways, evil can creep in and kill our spirits (suicide, depression, anxiety, fear, helplessness, and hopelessness). Watch for it! The most important thing I learned was to look to God, through His Word. As long as I was overly focused on me and my hurts, I could only see darkness. When I started reading the bible consistently, I did not realize that I was being exposed to light and life. Watch for the enemy without, but also watch for the enemy within. Don’t just flow with it, seek to be set free by the truth.

Diligently keep your heart from those things that threaten to destroy your heart. What unhealthy thoughts, habits, and behaviors are taking up residence in your heart? You have to fight! Fight to keep your mind in the truth. There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is destruction. Truth is important. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, trust and believe the truth of God’s Word: what it says about God Himself as our Father, what it says about you as His child, what it says in all regards.

Conclusion

You can be passive and slothful; allowing your heart to be led away by deceptive and unhealthy stories. Or you can actively and aggressive fight with intentionality; arming yourself with the truth of God’s Word.  Every day, you’re taking a stand one way or another and are telling a story about what you believe in your heart. I pray you will be clothed with the armor of God, that you will stand guard of your heart, and that you will fight to believe and act upon stories based on truth.