This verse is not referring to the physical heart that is pumping blood throughout your body. It is referring to the inner, spiritual person. The heart is your authentic self—the core of your being. It is that part of you that makes you, you. It is your inner being where your dreams, your desires, and your passions live. It is that part of you that connects with God and other people. The heart is mentioned over 900 times in the Bible. God wants to get your attention about its importance.
Before
you can do something you have to think about it. Your thoughts lead to
attitudes. Attitudes lead to actions. Actions lead to achievements. It all
begins with the thought life. Your achievements will be the sum total of your
thoughts. When God gets ready to change someone, how does He do it? God
changes the thought process. God made you where you can’t think two things
at one time. If you’re thinking what’s right, you cannot be thinking what’s
wrong. When God is in the heart, then we think right, live right, and do
right. When God is absent, we think wrong, do wrong, and live wrong. Here are seven
ways to guard your heart:
Cultivate an
Atmosphere of Community-When
we are adopted as sons and daughters of the one true King, we come into a
family and are sent on mission. This involves people. There’s no way to follow
Jesus in isolation. It flat out doesn’t even make sense. If Jesus says by
following Him, you’ll be a part of the Church and you’ll make disciples (that
does not translate to) just have your personal isolated relationship with me
and you’ll be fine.
We need people. We need community. Your heart
needs people constantly pouring into you, and you need to be pouring
into people. There’s a constant flow coming in and out as you love and
serve others. People need to hear about Jesus and you need to grow in the
Lord with your family that you’ll be with for all eternity.
Follow What
the Lord Is Leading You to Do-Everyone is different. We all have different skills and
desires and that’s a good thing. God has made us different, intentionally. He
calls us to follow Him in so many different ways. Some of us will be pastors,
teachers, stay at home moms, musicians, mechanics, writers, or baristas. What
is God asking you to do? What do you desire and just can’t stop thinking about?
How do you want to serve the Lord with that desire? Chances are that’s the
thing God is calling you to do. Trust Him and go for it! The longer you quench
that desire, the more strain you are putting on your heart.
Keep
Priorities High and Do Not Compromise-There’s wisdom in keeping our priorities. Of
course, those need to be the right priorities to begin with, but nonetheless
keeping them is a big deal. What can happen (and its happened for me many
times) is that we let the day dictate our priorities instead of our priorities
dictating the day. God, our family, work, and so on is an example of an order
of priorities to keep throughout the day. What we might be tempted to do is to
lower one throughout the day or elevate one too high.
God might be the last thing on our list (we
may not say that, but the way we live declares that), or we might elevate our
children to “god status.” Yes, we love and serve one another, but not to the
extent of compromising the priorities and values the Lord has given us. Once
you make a little compromise here or there, you begin to add toxicity
to your heart. The good news is that if you keep them, your heart will
grow in wisdom.
Persevere In
The Face of Difficulties-Difficulties are
going to happen in this life. They have to. That’s the product of a sinful
world filled with sinful people. It’s not a coincidence that God lines out
multiple things for you to do while following Him. Reading the Bible,
praying consistently, sharing the Gospel with others, and spending time in
solitude with God are just some of these. There will be times that you don’t
feel God’s presence or feel like He is listening to your prayers. Persevere.
Trust that He is always completing a good work in you. Believe that the Lord
will prevail, in all things. As you persevere, you will continue to grow in
Godliness and your heart will be strong.
Protect Everything
That Comes In-Everything
is competing for our time, money, and resources. Just turn on the TV or go
anywhere and you’ll quickly be hit with anything and everything that wants your
attention. Music, videos, books, language, power, money, and pride are just
some of the many examples. We need to use wisdom in what we allow into our
hearts. We only have a limited time each day to make much of God, so what are
we being influenced by, listening to, or looking at? Train your eyes to look
away from lust. Listen to wisdom instead of foolishness. Protect yourself from
harm’s way and a culture that is anti-God and replace it with things that are
Godly. Your heart will then remain protected.
Trust the
Lord with Rest-We
live in a culture that is so fast paced, chances are you might have spent about
30 seconds on this page, and then you’ll be off to the next one. Productivity
is elevated above all else and people are praised for getting things done.
While we run around like crazy, we often forget this is bad for our hearts. We
are also telling God we don’t trust Him in the process. When we rest in the
Lord (including taking a full day off), we are declaring our dependency on Him.
We are admitting we can’t do life on our own.
If you think about it, your body needs sleep for a third of the time you are
even alive. Not only that, how do you think you fall asleep or even wake up in
the morning? That’s only because of the Lord. Whether you need to start
observing the Sabbath, or just need to take a deep breath and let the Lord do
the work instead of you, be encouraged to trust Jesus and rest. Let your heart
rest.
“Stop giving your heart back to the hands that broke it expecting them to
repair it. It’s not worth your time to continue to invest your feelings into
somebody who’s clearly unworthy of your love. It’s impossible to create the
relationship you want from someone who’s not ready to give it to you.” (Rehabtime.org)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“5 Ways to Guard Your
Heart” Roger
Carr
·
“7 Ways to Guard Your Heart” by
·
“How Do You Guard Your
Heart?” by Sophie McDonald
· “How to Guard Your Heart” by Adrian
Rogers
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