Guard Your Heart

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. (Proverbs 4:23-27 ESV).

 

The reading today begins with an interesting command: “Keep your heart with all vigilance” (v. 23). The word “keep” may be better translated as “guard.” I know a little about guarding my physical heart these days. Since having been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and the placement of three different stents over the last eighteen months, I have seen my share of cardiologists. They tell me the same thing: “It is not a matter of preventative measures; we now are forced to use management measures. This has included various medications, diet, exercise, and precautions in case of an emergency.

 

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). To some, a pure heart does not seem particularly necessary. They may say, “Just so long as you don’t hurt other people, it doesn’t matter what goes on in your mind.” Others will hear Jesus and say with regret, “If only I could be pure!” they have fallen for one of the great lies. We are not in a position to practice spiritual preventative care, we are sinners. As sinners we must manage our spiritual hearts; we must guard against the temptations we will face.

 

The first step is to be born again. The Prophet Ezekiel says, speaking on the Lord’s behalf, “I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27). In Job 31, a seldom-read, wonderful passage, we see a man of God whose heart has been transformed. From the wellspring of its purity, generosity, and love flow justice and blessing to everyone around him, without political jockeying, strident demands, or bloodshed.

 

How a Christian longs for the purity of heart that will enable him or her to see God! Jesus promised the woman at the well, “The water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Go ahead and take a long deep drink of that water!