Guard Your Heart Diligently

King Solomon, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote:
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23 NKJV)
 
The word ‘Keep’ means to guard. We are to diligently guard our hearts.
 
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)
 
Notice the phrase, “Above all else” This means that this activity of guarding our hearts must be our top priority list daily. You probably heard teachings on protecting the body, and that is good, but we need to protect our hearts also.
 
Now you must understand that when the bible speaks of the heart, it does not refer to the physical organ in our bodies pumping blood, but it refers to our inner man - the spirit man. So then, to guard our heart essentially means to guard our inner being- our mind, thoughts, feelings, and desires.
 
Why do we need to guard our hearts?
1.Because your heart (inner man) is extremely valuable
 
Sometime back, I was in Canada. It was a beautiful place that I was staying and the hosts there were so kind. They really took good care of us. God bless them in every way.
 
Now I saw that they would leave their garbage properly segregated and packaged on the street every Wednesday night. It would be picked up by the garbage truck Thursday morning. The whole night the garbage was left unguarded. Why? Simply because it was worthless. The idea is simple. No one guards worthless things.
 
So then, if God’s Word commands us to guard our hearts above everything else, one can understand how valuable our hearts must be in His sight.
 
Our heart (our inner man) is who we really are. It is the very core of our being. It is where all our dreams, our desires, and our passions live. It is that part of us that connects and interacts with God and other people.
 
We had a seminar called ‘Heart Talk’ where an imminent cardiologist shared how we need to take proper care of our physical heart if we are to lead healthy lives. In the same manner, our spiritual heart ‘our inner man, cannot be neglected as it is extremely valuable.

Father, release the spirit of the fear of the Lord into my heart so that I will never depart from You (Jeremiah 32:40)
 
Father, strike my heart with the revelation of Your majesty, that I might live in awe before You.
 
Father, release Your holy presence that causes my spirit to tremble before Your glorious majesty.
 
Unite my heart to Your heart and Word, and cause me to delight in the fear of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen