Are You a Guard?

Every day we make choices about what we will fill our hearts with.

Yes, we make those choices. They are not made for us.

You see, we cannot blame others for what makes its way into our hearts.

No wonder scripture tells us:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23

This is not simply good advice from a kindly uncle, it is the command given to us by the Creator of our hearts.

He knows what we can allow in and then, in turn, what would come from the fruit of that.

A guard is someone who is very aware of their surrounding and is charged with protecting the safety of property and people.

In guarding our hearts we need to be aware of what is ‘absorbed’ by it – as we spoke of previously.

Is it filled with the love of God or does it absorb the suspicion, fear and cultural norms of the world around it?

We are told to love our neighbor but we are not charged with guarding their heart any more than they are charged with guarding ours.

It is a choice, a decision we each personally make hundreds of times a day.

What will you allow in?

What will fill your heart?

“...Love the Lord your God with all your heart...”

Matthew 22:37