How To Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Britain’s great sea captains in the days of Queen Elizabeth I, was a fearless adventurer. As A result, He was a great favourite of the queen but was disliked by her successor James I.

In the end, the king condemned Sir Walter to death. However, The executioner, whose sympathy evidently was with the prisoner, had no joy in his task.

Hoping to ease the sailor’s last moments, the executioner told Sir Walter how to place his head on the block to ensure swift decapitation.

The prisoner thanked him. After that he said “It matters little, friend,” Sir Walter said, “whether or not the head is right so long as the heart is right.”

What Is The Heart?

The heart is a very important organ in your body and when it stops beating, you are as good as dead.

When it beats too slow or beats too fast it signifies a problem. As a result, No one likes to get any kind of bad news about the heart.

If you get into a fight you do not want someone hitting your heart.

In this scripture, it says we need to guard our heart but it is not the physical heart Solomon is talking about.

He is not asking you to get a shield and walk around protecting your heart at all times.

The heart is spoken of in Scripture as the center of the moral and spiritual life.

All moral conditions from the highest to the lowest are said to centre in the heart. Sometimes the heart is used to represent a person’s true nature or character.

Samson told Delilah “all that was in his heart” (Judg. 16:17 NASB). This true nature is contrasted with the outward appearance: “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7 RSV).

Because the heart is at the root of the problem, this is the place where God does His work in the individual.

Heart deals with the physical emotional mental and spiritual and they are not really separate but blended together.

Your heart is the real you. Everything you do and say comes from it. Before Saul became king, God gave him a new heart (1 Sam. 10:9).

God promised Israel that He would give them a new spirit within, take away their “heart of stone” and give them a “heart of flesh” (Ezek. 11:19 NASB

Why We Need To Guard Our Heart?

Guard your heart is normally thought of in relationships.

“Guard your heart against these Young Girls and Young Boys cause they out to make your life miserable.”

That wasn’t really the main idea Solomon had. Guarding your heart actually deals with Idolatry. It’s about looking for anything other than God to complete you.

Today when we look around we see many big Ministers falling in terrible ways.

Big men of God they are being found in areas where you would not expect a minister to fall in.

Men have to leave the Ministry because they are alcoholics. Men have to leave due to abuse of power.

Bill Hybels the Pastor of Willow Creek was accused of sexual misconduct.

Mark Driscoll – Founder of Mars Hill church Driscoll was forced to resign in 2014 after a plagiarism scandal, followed by allegations of emotional abusiveness and misogyny. He was also accused of misuse of church funds.

Jimmy Swaggart was a big preacher but it became public that he was cheating on his wife with a New Orleans prostitute. Not only that, but Swaggart was also an avid consumer of porn.

JON CRIST famous comedian – tried to pressure several women into having sex with him. He was getting a Netflix series but it got cancelled when they heard of his fall.

I am not saying these things to condemn these men but to show how easy it can be for a Minister to fall.

The temptations and pressure in these megachurches are way more than we have in our small churches.

Some of these men got restored the same way how David got restored.

Some people may say – That would never happen to me but That is stemmed from pride.

Paul told the Corinthian Church Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

This is a warning to every one of us in the church especially the Ministers of the Word of God.

Whatever’s in your heart is eventually going to show up in your everyday life. Whatever’s inside will eventually find its way out, where anyone and everyone can see it.

That alone makes it extremely important to monitor the things we allow to shape our hearts. I don’t want something nasty, sinful, and selfish finding its way out and damaging my relationships with others, and I doubt you do either.

This Advice was given by a man called Solomon to his son Rehoboam.

Solomon was probably the best man to give this advice as Solomon had all this wisdom but because he wasn’t guarding his heart – he was led astray and he sinned in big ways especially in the area of relationships with women.

This is why it so important not just to know God’s Word but to apply it to one’s life.

Solomon knew that the issue stems with the heart.

Get the heart right and the correct behaviours will follow.

The purpose of Proverbs was stated in the first chapter verses 2-7 which was to provide and develop wisdom, discipline, understanding, insight and guidance aimed at inspiring right and reasonable living by God’s standards.

Even though it is a handbook of wisdom the foundation starts with THE FEAR OF THE LORD. In a practical sense this involves a serious determination to do what God says is right and worthy of honour and to avoid what he says is wrong and worthy of judgment.

ALL OF US HAVE WEAKNESSES.

What you are weak in, I may not be weak in and What I am weak in you may not be weak in.

It’s especially in these areas of weaknesses we need to guard our hearts. If your weakness is Anger meaning that People cause you to get really angry at times – The enemy knows this and will try to put you in those situations to damage your witness.

Sometimes in order to guard your heart, you may be forced to leave your job because they are asking you to do things that you know God won’t approve.

Not much people would be willing to do that especially in this time of pandemic when Jobs are scarce but sometimes in order to guard your heart you may need to take such drastic measures.

Do you know that the Bible speaks more about money than any other subject except God himself?

Money is a big weakness for people but the problem is not really the money – the issue is the heart.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS THE MATTER OF THE HEART.

The heart wants you to be better than everyone else. Are you appalled at what is happening In your country at this time? The problem we have is a heart problem! There is Racism right across the World since this Black Lives Matter became popular.

The issue of the heart – anger, murder etc lies in their heart. It is a change of heart that these people need.

If you want to know what is in your heart – LOOK AT YOUR ACTIONS Click To Tweet

What Do We Need To Guard It Against?

Lots of things wants to get into your heart that’s why you need to guard it.

We guard our hearts against all kinds of distractions from our faith. Our heart is fragile. We have to do what we can to protect it.

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

1. Our thought life is so important – Stinking Thinking is what people struggle with.

Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

2. MURDER – Look at the World today – this is normal. If you hate your brother it is murder 1 John 3:15

3. ADULTERY – David and Bathsheba in the Bible is an example. The grass is greener on the other side. Marriages are not lasting nowadays even in the church.

4. SEXUAL IMMORALITY – Rampant nowadays. It has so much temptation out here now. We all weak in this area and sometimes we need to do like Joseph and run for our lives.
5. THEFT – Thieving and looting is normal in our world today.
6. FALSE TESTIMONY – Normal in the court system nowadays.

7. SLANDER – Anybody gets us angry well we are quick to slander their name. Sometimes we hear something about someone. We don’t even know if it is true but we like good gossip so we slander that person and ruin their reputation. People are getting sued for that nowadays.
8. PRIDE – is a big issue in the church these days.

The old story is told about the young preacher who strutted to the pulpit, expecting to wow the congregation. He humbly walked out of the pulpit after the sermon bombed. “What happened?” he asked a senior minister. The wise, seasoned preacher counselled, “Son if you would have gone up to the pulpit the way you came down, you would have been able to come down the way you went up.”

How To Guard Your Heart?

Proverbs 4:20-22 My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.

1. Monitor what tries to come in and distract our heart

Watch what you watch: Be careful what Internet sites you log on to. Be careful what books you read and what TV programs you watch. Ask yourself, “Is this wholesome, beneficial and productive in my walk with the Lord?”

2. Feed On God’s Word

If you want to know how to guard your heart against things that will pull you away from God, the Bible is the best place to start. It is full of advice for living wisely.

The goal is not to read the Bible, The goal is not even studying the bible, The goal is to allow what is said in the Bible to change your life.

It is doing what the Bible says that will help us to guard our heart. The Bible is how God speaks to us.

A believer will hear God’s Word but a Disciple will Heed God’s Word. Click To Tweet

It is taking action on what is being said. MOST Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience.

If we eat too much we get obese. A lot of us are spiritually Obese. WE always eating from the Word, Attending all the services, going to the bible studies etc but not exercising what we hear. Applying God’s Word is what will keep us from Spiritual Obesity.

3. Spend Time In Prayer

Guarding your heart means having a healthy relationship with God. That relationship grows as you pray and have conversations with Him.

A good practice after reading God’s Word is to pray about what you just read. Ask God to give you the strength to live what you just read.

Pray the scriptures. Ask God to help you be devoted in your walk with him. Ask God to show you areas of your heart that you need to address and to guard.

4. Choose Friends Wisely

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Choosing good friends seems easy, but sometimes we lose sight of friends who are good for us and the ones that seem more fun or flashy. Make sure there is substance in your relationships.

The people whom you associate with plays a big part in what goes into your heart. People speak into your lives every day and you need to be careful whom you allow speaking into your lives.

People who speak into you are more important than people who speak about you. They can make your heart better or bitter. Click To Tweet

People who grow up in church their whole lives and are living Godly lives can change a lot when they get themselves involved in the wrong company. Guarding your heart may mean that you have to remove certain people from your life.

5. Have Accountability

When you are accountable to no one but yourself you are setting up yourself for trouble. All these Pastors I was speaking about earlier realised that accountability was missing and they allowed things to reach a terrible outcome.

They are now putting accountability in place to keep them from repeating those same mistakes. EVERY PASTOR NEEDS A PASTOR.

Application

Let this be your prayer

Psalms 86:11-12 Teach me your way, Lord, and I will live by your truth. Give me an undivided heart to fear your name. I will praise you with all my heart, Lord my God, and will honor your name forever.

How is your heart health today?