Proverbs 4:23 teaches us, “Above all else guard your hearts for everything we do flows from it”. In the Hebrew language, the heart involves the feelings/affections and the will and the thoughts/mind. Someone once called the heart the ‘control centre’ of our being.
If the physical heart, which pumps oxygen and nutrient blood to the rest of the body, does not function well, it will negatively affect the rest of the body. The same with the heart spiritually; if it is not in good condition, it will affect everything we do. Scripture teaches us to keep a strict eye on it, to keep a close eye on all the avenues to it. What we do is a reflection and mirror of the condition of our hearts.
Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman” (31:1). Still, Jesus says in Matthew 5:28, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. The matter of the eyes is a matter of the heart.
Jesus says in Luke 6:34, “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.” The matter of the tongue is a matter of the heart. Above all else, guard your hearts.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” But praise God for the Gospel message of a new heart in Christ. Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” is fulfilled in Christ, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, look, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
May we put a signboard in front of our hearts, figuratively speaking, saying, “No bitterness, unforgiveness, revenge, lies, evil thoughts, etc., are allowed here!” May the prayer of our hearts be today, “God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10).
God Bless!
