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Guard Your Heart

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

          The heart represents the will in ancient literature. It is not the only part of us that makes decisions or acts, but it is the subject today. Two ideas come to mind. The first is that we need to guard our hearts from the other parts of ourselves. The heart, mind, soul, body, spirit, and relationships should work together, but how often does what we want over-rule any choice that our will might make. How often does social or peer pressure dictate to us? Our biases sometimes get in the way of what we think we should do, and would do if it weren’t for them.

          At the same time, while we may wish to say that we didn’t make the choice we made, we did. We are still responsible. Our hearts are likely to have given in with far too little a fight for control. Thirdly, we need to protect our hearts from pride. One of the worst lies we can tell ourselves is “I can handle it.”

          Ultimately, our hearts are broken, not in the sense that someone hurt our feelings, but in the sense that sin breaks everything it touches. We must guard our heart against further damage by sin, and from further damage that might take place if we aren’t mindful of the damage that’s already there. Imagine breaking an ankle, and four weeks into its healing, trying to run a marathon. Need I say, “Foolish!” But that’s what we sometimes do with our hearts. 

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