GUARD YOUR HEART

Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it springs the issues
Of LIFE.
–Proverbs 4: 23

The bible refers to the heart as the ruling center of the whole person, the home of the personal life.
When Solomon asked for wisdom in the book of first Kings, God gave him “a wise and understanding heart” 1 Kings 3:12
David prayed in the book in the book of psalms that God search his heart daily;
That shows there is more to the heart (not the physical pumping blood heart) than meets the eyes.
In Mark 12:30, Jesus told the people that they must love God with all their Heart
And just as doctors and every medical practitioner will advise that care for your heart by taking the right diet, doing exercises and many other factors can affect life positively and doing otherwise can be detrimental to ones life. This can also be attributed to the non physical heart.
The heart is composed of the mind, will, emotions, and conscience.

When we refer to the word Guard, it doesn’t mean to seal or bar your heart;
It means to set a watchman over it. Set a watchman over your mind, your thoughts, your emotions, feelings.
And it’s from this same place we should love God; that is we should love God with all our emotions, in all our thoughts.
We are spiritual beings, created to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, but without worship coming from a right heart, it is useless,
If the purpose of our heart isn’t right, we cant love God rightly. It should be from a “pure” heart, a heart void of offenses and heaviness, a heart that is so obsessed with God and the things of God, a heart which is in the right place with God…

Jeremiah 17:10
“I the Lord, searches the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways. According to the result of his deeds.

So God telling us to guard our hearts today means to protect your thoughts, your mind, your will because they determine who you become, the words that proceed from your mouth and also your relationship with God. Guard it against the pride of life, offenses, evil thoughts and suggestions of the devil that build up a strong hold in your mind.

…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34b

And He isn’t just telling us to guard out hearts, God is telling us to do it diligently, with all diligence. Which means persistent work and effort!

A lot of times people offend me and I can’t get over the thought of the offense, I don’t just let it pass and wait for it to go or them to apologize, I immediately pray about it and ask that the Holy Spirit helps my heart and many times that I have done that, I immediately feel ease in my heart.

I also take time to pray for the person and the situation!

I am always intentional about the thoughts that come to my mind, the ones I think or the ones I don’t even know where they come from; I do not even give them a landing pad, I pull them down immediately quoting 2 Corinthians 10:5 because I know they are trying to exalt themselves about the knowledge of God I have and I know how damaging they were to me.

How to guard your heart?

• Stay under His shield: Speak The Word over your heart.
• Renew your mind daily
• Pray daily for an heart search, let the Holy Spirit show you what to work on and let go off.
• Consciously filter negative thoughts, people around you.
• Learn about your emotions and work towards improving them
• Read books, listen to messages, feed your mind the right things
• Exercise your mind- occupy your mind with the things of God. • Take a time out daily to check yourself and how the day went, it helps you see things you need to do better in and to see things clearly. • Do not allow offenses brood in your heart for too long, let them go!
• Beware of pride, vain thoughts, and any thinking that exalts itself above God.

I pray that the Lord almighty helps us and daily search our hearts and make us whole! In the name of Jesus. Amen!

We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ,
2 Corinthians 10:5 AMP