“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (ESV).
It seems like everything we encounter vies for the attention of our hearts. After all, marketing is most effective when it touches on emotions, when it’s made personal. We’re asked: what do you want? We’re advised: follow your heart! We’re told that all answers and healing lie within us, if only we could become still enough, process our emotions more thoroughly, connect with who we truly are.
There is a Biblical principle at work in this approach- but it’s not what it seems on the surface. Like many things in the world, a small corner of the truth shines through in a lot of darkness. Your heart is important. In fact, Proverbs 4:23 says that we are to keep watch over our hearts because of what issues forth from it: life. Now we know that God is the one who ultimately gives us our spirit, he created our soul and very existence! I am not alive because my heart makes it so (only God gives life). However, the way that I live (both physically in the world and spiritually) will reflect and be directed by that which my heart is dedicated to. What we do with our heart and who we choose to follow is a choice that we have, one which has an impact on how we live out our lives. Why is it so important to guard our hearts? Because what we allow into them helps to direct our course of life.
The Soil of the heart
This truth is found in many places within the Bible, perhaps most clearly in the idea behind sowing and reaping.
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Galatians 6:7 (ESV).
The things we allow to come into our hearts and become a part of us effect how we walk. Over and over again we see the metaphor of the human heart as ground for planting.
“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8 (ESV).
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11 (ESV).
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3:6 (ESV).
The list goes on!
The verse within context
The whole passage of scripture lays out a beautiful picture of a father’s warning: “listen to my words!” He is pleading with the sons to obey wisdom and explaining the way of righteousness vs. the way of wickedness.
“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:18-23 (ESV).
The word translated as “keep” in verse 23 (both the original Hebrew and Koine Greek words) can also be translated as “guard” (and often is!). Just as a gardener guards a patch of earth from things that seek to devour and deprive the plants (so tenderly planted!) we are called to guard our hearts against that which would turn our feet from righteousness.
“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21 (ESV).
Thankfully, as children of God we don’t have to operate this guarding business on our own. We have the Holy Spirit to help us. We have the mind of Christ – The Lord is faithful to let our hearts know, through his word and the indwelling of his spirit, what is allowed to grow in the soil of our hearts and what needs to leave (or be denied entry).
There’s something that needs to be said among believers and among my generation- it’s something I wish my mentors had said to me several years ago: morality is not legalism.
Legalism seeks to obtain salvation (and sustain it!) through the law. We know there is no way to obtain salvation, except through Jesus Christ- and he sustains us by sealing us with his Holy Spirit —. Morality is ultimately following the example of Jesus and avoiding those things that grieve the heart of God. In many situations, we’re afraid to talk about sin, and how it separates us from the close relationship God desires with us. Sin has consequences: in relation to our communion with God, within the Body of Christ, and how our life is walked out. When the wrong things are growing in our hearts, the fruit that it produces aren’t in line with the life we have in Christ.
Fruit in the valley
Can we guard our hearts, have the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, and walk with Jesus (getting back up when we fail and running into the arms of forgiveness and grace)… and still experience trials? Yes. There will be trials as a believer, and difficulty even when we follow the Lord. However, the Lord sustains us. Not because we deserve it through “good works,” but because we are his own and he is merciful. A wonderful thing about the fruits of the Spirit is that they are just that- his fruits in our lives. The Lord causes them to grow, and even in dark places, we can experience his goodness, his righteousness, and the fruits he’s planted in our hearts.
We don’t have to guard alone
I am so grateful to God for this! We weren’t given a place within the Body of Christ to remain in isolation- fighting battles alone. The Lord knows we need each other! Go to a Godly person you trust, reach out for help and prayer. Every single one of us is striving to walk out our faith in a dark world. We’ve all fallen short of the will of God. We can encourage one another to approach the throne of grace in repentance, knowing that it’s the Lord himself who sustains us and helps us.
- Who are some examples in the Bible of people who followed the Lord and kept guard over their hearts? What about an example of someone who did not?
- How does the Holy Spirit help us stand guard?
- Do you think the nature of guarding our hearts changed at all after the Holy Spirit was given to the church?
