Monday’s Blog: Guarding Our Heart
For the last two weeks, I’ve been talking about guarding our mind and guarding our eyes. This week, I want to finish up with focusing on our heart. We remember the New Living Translation for Proverbs 4:23 says, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Our heart is the most important because it leads us in the direction we take in life. The Bible tells us wherever our treasure is, there our heart will also be (Luke 12:34). We will inevitably follow our heart wherever it leads us. This is why it’s important we guard our heart so we don’t follow it down the wrong path.
When we accept Christ, God gives us a new heart. A heart that is one with His. A heart that desires what He desires. Ezekiel 36:26 in the GOD’S WORD Translation says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn hearts and give you obedient hearts. However, if we don’t continually guard our new heart, we can easily contaminate it and bring it back to its old stubborn, hardened, disobedient state.
Psalm 86:11 says, Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your Truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. A person who has a divided heart still chooses to live by what the flesh desires, following the pattern of the old disobedient heart they once had. Whereas, someone who has an undivided heart, chooses to live by what the Spirit desires, following the pattern of the new heart with reverence and obedience to God.
An undivided heart doesn’t mean a perfect walk with God, as we can see from David’s life in the Bible. God said David was a man after His own heart, and he would do everything God wanted him to do (Acts 13:22). Yet he committed adultery with Bathsheba, had her husband killed, and did other things that were against God’s commands. The reason his heart was right was because he acknowledged what he did was wrong and repented. His heart was pure because he believed God and honored His Law as Truth. He didn’t manipulate the Truth to fit his needs. He changed his behavior to fit the Truth. His heart was in agreement with God.
I believe that unbelief is the most important thing we need to guard our hearts against. Hebrews 3:12-15 says, See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,†so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.â€
We won’t be able to guard our hearts from the deception of sin if we don’t believe ALL God’s Word as Truth. We won’t ever obey Him if we don’t believe Him. Believing the Truth, and then being obedient to the Truth, guards and purifies our heart. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).
I was just talking to a woman this past weekend and she made a good point about Christianity. She said she felt that people just complicate it. She said we have to look at it as through a child’s eyes and just believe it. If God says it, we need to believe it no matter what.
There isn’t enough fear of God and respect for His commands today. My stance on God’s Word as the whole Truth has never changed since I turned to Christ 10 years ago. And I believe this is the reason why my heart has kept from hardening.
When I read something in the Bible, I accept it into my heart as Truth. If it is a command, I strive to obey it. If it is a promise, I strive to take hold of that promise and confess it as mine. This doesn’t mean I never struggle with unbelief or sin, and I walk in perfect faith. It just means I always know in my heart that God’s Words are true, and I strive to take hold of them and live my life by them. Psalm 119:11 says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
You don’t hide anything in your heart without first accepting it. We can’t accept it if we don’t believe it. There are so many amazing things God has for us, but we can fail to receive them by walking in unbelief. Remember the parable of the sower and the seed I talked about in the blog “Guarding Our Mind”? I listed the different ways we can choke, through unbelief, the seed sown in us and prevent it from producing any fruit in our lives.
The more I accept God’s promises and commands in my heart, the more I see His Word manifest in my life. My thoughts are, if someone is giving something away for free, I’m taking it. If God has given us everything we need in His Word, then we need to strive to take hold of it by guarding our heart from unbelief.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?†the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,†the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.†And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.†Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:15-17
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**Something to think about this week**
Let’s all pray this week for God to open our eyes that we may see all the amazing things He has prepared and available for us through Christ.
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Psalm 119:18
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**Come back next Monday as I share more of God’s Truths and the reasons behind the Truths.
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All Bible verses are taken from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.
Posted in Monday's Blogs by Amanda Beth with 1 comment.
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