Scripture
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
~Proverbs 2:23, NLT
Quote
The best way to guard the heart is to worship…in which the mouth, the mind, the imagination and even the body is focused on God.
~Timothy Keller
In the bible, the heart is the seat of our emotions–what we feel and the mind is the seat of reason which is what we think. It is very easy to become heart lead but this is dangerous. Jeremiah 17:9 reads, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” The problem is: you and I don’t really know our own hearts but even if we did, it is not a reliable guide. We do not put our trust in the heart, we put our trust is God’s word and sometimes His word condemns our hearts wishes. So why does Solomon tell us to guard the heart if we can’t trust it in the first place?
I think the reason is the huge influence the heart has in our lives. Keller says, “What the heart loves, the mind will find reasonable and eventually, the will finds doable.” The heart is heavily influenced by the eyes. Eve saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Examine Achan’s confession– I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. Jesus said, So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. If we don’t look, we don’t lust.
So, Solomon was right–we guard the heart because of its powerful influence on all of life and we guard the eye because of its influence on the heart. Perhaps that is why Solomon said later, Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Never underestimate the power of the heart nor its influence. In these days of the coronavirus we are learning to guard our bodies: we need to put just as much effort into guarding our hearts.
After getting home from church, the kids and I went hiking. We hiked a little more than 5 miles and we drove more than twenty, on a gravel road, a rough gravel round. Then I played seven innings of softball with the kids. By the time I got home, I had 16,503 steps on my fitbit. I decided I better come on to the office and post my blog. Once I get in the house I will probably crash, just after I mix the hush puppies for tomorrow,
I don’t really understand the FACEBOOK thing but if I understood correctly, we had more viewers today than last Sunday. Last Sunday we had 5 and today we had 8….Just kidding but we did have more. Josh and I talked about the possibility of going LIVE STREAM on Sunday mornings. I have been the big hold back but I think the LORD is changing my mind. LORD willing, we will do drive-in church on Easter.
God bless you; keep your hands clean and gargle with a strong antiseptic every night. Monday is supposed to be 70 degrees and pretty–enjoy!