Heart Smart

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Prov 4:23 (NLT)

The heart is pretty valuable to our lives. You wouldn't have a life if you didn't have a heart! It's crucial to our physical and emotional well-being but these things also reflect our spiritual well being. Why is it that it's termed “asking Jesus into your heart”? It's so intrinsic and personal to who we are, that the deepest place for God to penetrate, is our hearts. Yet though some people are guarded about letting God into their hearts, they freely allow other junk to waltz on in. They're not careful about what they watch, listen too and allow to speak to their hearts. The Bible says “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. What is it that you allow into your heart-thoughts? I don't condemn TV or secular music or even fictional writing, but to ‘guard' means to go through a check-point. When you're watching something do you allow the Holy Spirit to give you peace or alert about it. What about when a colleague or someone you respect mistreats you? Do you allow those words access to your heart? This passage in Proverbs clearly calls and places the responsibility on us to “guard our hearts” to check and protect it. That means we ultimately determine the condition of our own heart. If you place a piece of steel in a sealed container and drop it to the bottom of the ocean, it won't rust because the container PROTECTS it from the salty water. Don't allow rust causing words and themes to penetrate the guard of your heart. The Psalmist says “I've hidden Your word in my heart”. The Word is one of the best guards you can have for it. It rejects what is wrong and allows what is true and right in. That's why it's so important you KNOW the word. It'll help keep your heart rust-free! God bless you today…dig deep and push into Him! Love ya…