It All Starts in the Heart
Blog Post 4 - October 2022
I want to study with you this week about something that is very precious and very valuable, but the majority of people especially believers do not treat it as though it has much value at all. I want to talk about the state of our hearts. To truly and fully experience the “moreness” of God we have to prepare our hearts to be a fertile place where the Word can grow and produce in our lives. When we are believing to see the manifestation of a promise from God that we have found in the Bible, it first needs to be something we believe in our hearts before we’re ever going to see it tangibly. God has to get it in your heart before He can get it in your hands. So because of that, we have to take a position, an intentional mindset that the state of our hearts is so very important. You take care of what’s important to you. Your heart needs to be one of those things that is so important, so precious, and so valuable that you are taking the upmost care of it. By care I mean tend to it, protect it, guard it, and feed it nutritional food. I really want to drive home the point that our hearts truly need to be one of those things that is most important to you in this life, if not THE most important thing.
See Proverbs 4:20-23 NLT “My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” The book of Proverbs is a series of lessons from a father to a son. These lessons cover basically every kind of piece of advice in life. It talks about legal advice, financial advice, relational advice, and on and on. Even though this father touches on any and all lessons that the son could ever need, he makes it a point to say “ABOVE ALL ELSE”. I like to try to remind myself that every word in the Bible was specifically put there for a reason. There is intentional meaning behind the words written in the Word of God. So when this verse says “above all else”, it sincerely means ABOVE ALL ELSE. So we need to take that warning seriously and take action. The verse also says that our hearts determine the course of our life. So wherever we are today, it’s because our hearts brought us here. So if my heart is determining how my life goes, then it becomes very crucial to me that I tend to it very cautiously and that I do guard it in all things.
I heard a message once that was describing guarding your heart. The preacher was giving the illustration of what a guard does as his job. A guard keeps things in that are supposed to be kept in and he keeps things out that are supposed to be kept out. We are the guard! It is our responsibility to keep in what is nourishing to the heart and to uproot and keep out what is not.
How do things get into our hearts? The gateway to our hearts is through our eyes and ears. Whatever we put our eyes on and watch, goes straight to our hearts. The same goes for whatever we listen to, it goes into our hearts to be processed. Whatever is not true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good, virtuous (Philippians 4:18) is only there cluttering up your heart. This may not be the most fun message to hear, because the follow up action to this word can put a little pressure on your flesh. However, the truth needs to be spoken and heard and acted upon. We have to be vigilant over what we allow ourselves to watch and listen to. Every single thing you consume through your eyes and ears is going straight to your heart to do one of two things. It will either fertilize the soil of your heart making it a hospitable place for the seed of the Word of God to produce fruit in your life. Or it will make your soil hard, dry and thorny, or cluttered with weeds. The result then is a place where the Word cannot produce the way it was intended. I won’t take too much time to harp on the subject. I will add however, that as believers, we do have to make some decisions that are not always easy or popular. And this I do know, to get the results that not many people have, you have to do the thing that no one does. t’s as simple as listening to the very still and small promptings of the Holy Spirit that are always there. He tells you when something isn’t what you should be allowing into your heart. He is always trying to help us protect our hearts. However we can get into the habit of brushing off that small voice and become hardened to it. Yet the Holy Spirit is so gracious, and we are able to repent, refocus and ask for sensitivity to return to give us our spiritual ears to hear when He’s prompting us.
To wrap up here, let’s take some time this week to listen closely to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to train us on guarding our hearts. Our hearts are the sole thing that determines the “course” of our lives. The word “course” means “the act or action of moving in a path from point to point.” So each step, each decision and each move we make in our lives ultimately comes out of our hearts. Your heart is not your natural mind located in your brain. Your brain and mindset stem from your heart. Be the guard your heart needs to thrive and to be a place that flourishes and produces the fruit of the Word of God. Next, week we will continue on this topic of your heart. The Word has so much more to say about it. So stay tuned for next weeks Friday Devo, where we will go deeper on this.
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