Skip to main content

A Hearty Meal

    I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about the phrase, "guard your heart," and what all goes into it. Why does Jesus ask us to guard our heart and what does it mean to do that? What I found is that the word stresses the importance of our hearts everywhere. There are countless scriptures referencing our hearts. Our hearts are very important to Jesus.

    Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts because our lives flow from it! Our hearts are the core of who we are. What we fill it with determines where we are going in life. If we want to be going towards Jesus, we have to be careful to feed our hearts life and goodness. But if we fail to guard ourselves against the evils of the world, we may find ourselves down a very different path.

    Jesus stresses a "pure" heart-- a heart that is filled with His purposes and not that of the world. When we accept Jesus our Spirits and hearts are reborn and new. We then have to be careful to nourish them with good food so that they will grow into His likeness and fulfill His purposes.

    If you have let your guard down and accepted fleshly things into your heart instead of the Spirit, don't worry. Jesus can renew your heart again. Ask Him to create a fresh heart in you and see if He will not do it. Don't allow your heart to be filled with sin, but we conscious to feed it with Godliness. Purify your heart and let your life on the path of righteousness.

 Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (NIV); Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (ESV)

Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (NIV)

Mark 7:21-23 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. (ESV)

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (ESV)

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (ESV)

Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (ESV)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dancing Through the Fire

     For a couple weeks now the Lord has been pressing this message on my heart. He revealed a flaw in my thinking I hadn't noticed. You see, when hard times come it's in my nature to duck and cover. I go into "survival mode" and I get tunnel vision. I only focus on getting through what's in front of me alive. But in doing so, not only do I miss a lot of opportunities, but I give in to the voice of fear in my life.     I know I don't speak only for myself when I say that God wants to us in our "every day lives." Not only at church or on a special mission trip, but in the trenches of the grocery store, the gym, work, etc. It is His will that every soul is saved and He wants us to go out into the world and win those hearts for Him. But when I put myself in survival mode, I block out all the opportunities God lays before me. When I numb myself with the routine of each passing day, week, and month, I miss out on sharing the one thing of eternal importa...
1 comment
Read more

How Firm a Foundation

Matthew 7:24-27 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Luke 6:46-49 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Path to Life

     Through this most recent season in life, God has been teaching me what it truly means to follow His plans for my life. Over the last year or so,  I have had to make some of the most ''adult" decisions in my life so far. Through that process, I have had to rely heavily on faith and the leading of the Holy Spirit to discern which is the right way to go. It has been a challenge for me, a planner to the core, to put my trust fully in God's plans and leading even when I am unable to see what's ahead and I am glad to say I have come out having learned a few things.      The main takeaway I would like to share is this: the right way is not the easiest way . That probably sounds very obvious if you have spent any time in church, but I never thought about that principle carrying over into walking out God's plans for my life. You see, there have been decisions that I have made over the last year that I was certain were what God was leading me to do. An...
Post a Comment
Read more