Guarding Your Heart

Oct 28, 2024

4 min read

Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life. What does that mean to you? I always thought it was advice to protect myself from others. We have all been hurt in some way by another person. For instance, a gaslighting person’s ego, a cheating spouse, a belittling relative, a lying friend, and even a crazed addict using projection or any other manipulative tactic to justify their behavior. It’s sad, but people can be selfish and sometimes use their own hurt to hurt others.

So, it’s not bad counsel to give, but not let yourself be used. Love, but not allow your heart to be abused. Trust, but don’t be naive. Listen to others, but don’t lose your own voice. I had this posted on my wall above my computer for a few years along with my favorite quote from Eckhart Tolle: When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation, or accept it. All else is madness.

It’s all very good advice, especially to protect yourself from hurt. But, there is something important missing from all that: Guarding your heart. When Wisdom tells us to guard our heart, she isn’t talking about protecting it from others—she is talking about protecting it from ourselves.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 15:18, But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

When some of Jesus’ disciples didn’t wash their hands before they ate, the Pharisees resented them, they took it personally, feeling offended because it didn’t follow the tradition of their elders.

Jesus saw their hypocrisy and knew Isaiah was right when he prophesied about them: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

So, Jesus pointed out that God said, through Moses, Honor your father and mother. But the Pharisees had said if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ’devoted to God,’ they are not to ’honor their father or mother’ with it but to give it to them, their institution, which represents God. They wanted their money and resources.

This violated the commandment of God for the sake of their tradition, their institution. They honored God with their lips, but not their heart.

The disciples were still concerned about the Pharisees being offended. Jesus replied, If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14).

Peter didn’t understand the heart parable, the connection. So, Jesus explained it again: For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming). These are the things which defile and dishonor the man; but eating with [ceremonially] unwashed hands does not defile the man (Matthew 15:19-20).

Our hearts flow. Flow is an action. And love, is a verb.

Things from the heart can defile and dishonor. And things that come out of our mouths, come from our hearts.

We can guard our hearts from regret. Anyone who says they have no regrets likely has narcissistic tendencies. We have all, at some point, said something we wish we could take back because some words spoken can turn into regret. The same goes for actions taken without considering the consequences. If you put God first, you have peace instead of regret.

During the time of Moses, the people of this time needed instruction by way of a set of rules. I believe that humans, not only on their own but also as a group, can mature spiritually. Later, Jesus came to show us that God is love. So, loving others is what pleases God, not so much following rules. The people of Jesus’ time (and our time) were ready for these new teachings. Jesus explains how God’s love is behind the commandments. He wants us to understand on our own not because we are told what is right and wrong but because we can understand what is right and wrong. We do this through love.

Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. The Sixth Commandment in Exodus 20:13 is: “You shall not murder.” Let’s try to understand this through love. The command to not murder focuses as much on our hearts as it does on our hands. For instance, the saying that words can kill is true. They can produce so much hurt in a moment that sometimes one cannot recover from it. Words can kill a feeling. They can even kill a relationship. We can spew out angry words easily. In those moments we are not loving. Yes, we can ask God for forgiveness. We can ask others for forgiveness. We can even forgive ourselves. But that doesn’t mean that the words didn’t kill. So, I again remind you (and remind myself) to speak from your heart, but choose your words wisely. Do everything with love.

Emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. It’s not just love. It’s also sadness, anger, guilt, greed and jealousy. It’s not that we shouldn’t feel these things. We should feel whatever we feel. They are warning signs—God’s searchlight in your spirit (Proverbs 20:27). How we handle these feelings is what matters. Rather than let the darkness make more darkness in the world, we can bring light. We can try gratitude, forgiveness, confession, giving, and lifting others up.

Speak from your heart, but choose your words wisely. This wisdom comes from putting God first, honoring him in our hearts and actions. This protects our hearts and preserves our freedom.

True love understands this. I believe that true love is divine.

Have a blessed evening,

Celia

postscript

Merriam-webster.com defines divine:

di· vine

dǝ-'vῑn

adjective:

diviner; divinest

1 religion

a: of, relating to, or proceeding directly from God or a god

divine inspiration