The Heart And The Bible
The heart, or the inner man is a frequent topic in the Bible. It is known as the center of oneself, the very core of a person. Our heart is who we are the REAL me inside. Our heart includes not only our personality, but our choices, feelings, decisions, intentions, motives, etc.
1)Proverbs 27:19 As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man.
How Do We Love Others And Still Guard Our Hearts
How do we allow ourselves to be vulnerable while still protecting our hearts?;
There are a few ways we can practice guarding our hearts and still loving people the way God calls us to love others.
Set boundaries.
Just because someone shares their deepest darkest secrets with you doesnt mean you have to reciprocate. Show empathy. Provide a listening ear. You dont have to be everything to everyone, and no one should expect you to be.;
Expect the best but prepare for the worst.
Every morning on the way to school, my kids and I share what were excited about for the day and what, if anything, could mess us up. If we identify something that could be a problem, we talk about how to prepare ourselves with a solution if it happens . I have to thank;Brendon Burchard for this wisdom. My kids think its a game we play but really, Im hoping to instill in them how to respond to situations, not react, and how to prepare themselves for any negativity. In the same way, we can love others but by having a clear understanding of how the relationship could go south, we can guard our hearts by being ready.
Most importantly, know that your heart belongs to God and He is the ultimate Comforter.
No matter how closely we guard our hearts, there is sin in this world and that sin brings pain. Sometimes that pain is a consequence of our own actions and sometimes its because someone else was cruel.
Guarding The Heart And Gratitude For The Grace Of God
Christians are instructed to avoid grumbling, murmuring, and complaining . Christians who engage in such behavior turn their focus away from the plans, purposes, and past work of God in their lives to the things of the world. From Gods vantage point, such behavior lacks genuine faith, and without faith, it is impossible to please God . Instead of grumbling, murmuring, and complaining, Christians are to strive for contentment in every phase of life, trusting in the Lord to provide all things in His time . To guard their hearts, as well as against a complaining spirit, Christians must cultivate gratitude that flows continually to them from the finished and sufficient work of the Lord Jesus.
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What Is Behind The Language In Proverbs : 23
The KJV words the verse beautifully: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”;.
In verse 23, the Hebrew word nar;means to “keep, preserve, guard from dangers, and watch.” The phrase “thy heart,” l,;means “inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding, soul, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination , conscience.
Although levav is the most common word for “heart,” the KJV writes this as keeping thy heart with all diligence, including our thoughts, wills, discernment, and affections. If we are to keep watch for danger over our hearts, we can do this by accessing the Word of God we’ve fastened tightly to our souls.
“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life” .
“Above all” literally means “before any other thing.” And that’s how vital keeping watch of what goes in and comes out of our heart is! Before anything else, Christ calls each of us to protect the souls He’s given us from the issues of life.
Although most translations have “the issues of life,” instead of “for from there flows,” the Hebrew word here is yasa,;meaning “seasons,” especially springtime. Out of your innermost being, flow the seasons of life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Therefore, it is not our ages or circumstances that shape these seasons but the condition of our hearts.
How Do You Guard Your Heart
I was 12 when I took my first self defense class. But Ive been protecting myself a lot longer than that; we come out of the womb with an aversion to pain.
Beyond learning to avoid situations that would bring physical pain, I protected everything I cared about from my favorite stickers, to my prized Michael Jordan basketball. Nothing was safe unless I carefully watched it.
So when my parents taught me to guard my heart, I caught on quickly.
Guard your heart, guard your heart, guard your heart. Not only have I been told that my whole life, but also I spent years drilling those three words into the middle and high school girls I discipled. But as my teens melted into my twenties, guarding my heart turned into imprisoning it.
What does it really mean to guard your heart? To protect your emotions, affections, and soul? Ive been forced to reconsider my definition and my role in the process. Ill tell you what its not.
Its not kissing dating goodbye.
Its not self-protecting.
And its not encasing your heart in lead so no one can get in to break it.
In fact, when I took this question to Scripture, I was surprised by the life-giving answer I found.
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Guarding Our Hearts And The Gospel
Christians guard their hearts because, as Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the spring of life. Jesus said of those who believe in Him,;Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water . When Jesus speaks of treasure throughout the Gospels, He has in mind what our hearts supremely value and are attracted to. Whats amazing about what Jesus says in John 7:38 and how it connects to Proverbs 4:23 is Jesus has sovereignly replaced our heart of stone with a new heart, with new desires and affections for Himself. Now Christians can find their meaning, value, and purpose in Christ alone, not in what their hearts may long for apart from Christ.
Christians know the peace of God, which passes all understanding ;so they can guard their hearts and minds now in Christ. The Lord will not relinquish His hold on the treasure of His precious people but will hold them fast in Christ . Christians guard their hearts knowing that the Lord, our Warrior, goes before us, in front of us, and is on every side at all times and in every place they go.
Guard It With The Breastplate Of Righteousness
A study of Ephesians chapter 6 will show that the;breastplate of righteousness is the piece of spiritual armor that we can put on to protect our heart. A physical enemy would aim for your physical, vital organs. But our spiritual enemy, Satan, aims for our spiritual core our soul.
Your soul, as author and speaker Priscilla Shirer put it in The Armor of God,is what makes you a unique individual. Its your personality, your distinctive internal nature, and it is composed of four important factors: mind , will , emotion , conscience . When Scripture speaks of your heart, its referring to the intersection of these four internal characteristics. The heart is the centerpiece of the soul.
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How Do We Guard Our Heart
Using the word HEART as an acronym, I want to suggest 5 areas we must guard our hearts if we are going to experience the life God intended for us. God cares about the course of your life, and so guarding your heart must be a top priority.
Guarding your heart begins with a commitment to strive for a healthy heart.
What Does The Heart Represent Spiritually
Before we can talk about how you can guard your heart, we have to first understand what the heart represents spiritually. Today, when we refer to our hearts, were usually speaking about our emotional centerthe place where love and feelings dwell. But the heart in the Hebrew culture represented a bit more than just emotion.
The word translated as heart in our English Bibles is the Hebrew word lêb. This word does mean heart in the literal sense but could also be used figuratively to mean feelings. Interestingly, lêb also extends to the will, the mind, and even the intellect. To a Hebrew, the heart is the center of everything, including understanding and wisdom.
To put it in Western terms, the lêb or heart is synonymous with the mind or intellect. It is not only the center of feeling but also the center of reasoning and thought.
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Why Does Guarding Your Heart Matter
The word heart is found between 500-800+ times in the Bible, depending on the version of the Bible you are reading. This points to the fact that a healthy spiritual heart is a really big deal. The insight given in Proverbs 4:23 demonstrates the critical nature and implications of maintaining such a heart:
Proverbs 4:23Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Have you ever thought about the implications of this verse? The idea surrounding the fact that our heart determines the course of our lives is staggering. Most people would say their future is determined by their choices, education, financial ability, luck of the draw, coincidence or maybe circumstance. The Bible teaches something much greater. Although these things may play a role in what we experience in life, the steering wheel of our life is our heart.
What does Scripture mean when it beckons us to guard our hearts? If the consequences include the direction of our lives, much attention ought to be given to this discipline.
Why Is It Important To ‘guard Your Heart’ According To Proverbs : 23
Now that you understand what this verse means I want to focus your attention from what to why. With your heart at the center of your decision-making, why should you guard your heart? According to Proverbs, everything you do flows from it. While I hope making good decisions and choices is enough let me give you some extra motivations as to why you want to guard your heart.
Because you love God.One of the greatest motivations for guarding your heart is because you love God. Loving God and maintaining close fellowship with him should be the driving factor behind guarding your heart. Why would you want to fill your heart or mind with anything that can drive a wedge between you and God? In my line of work, I travel a lot. Whenever I travel there are certain guards or protections, I personally put in place to protect myself and my relationship with my wife. I do this because I love her and dont want to hurt her in any way. When you are motivated by your love of God it will force you to create guards or hedges. This is not done begrudgingly or because you have to. You do it because you want to. That is the motivation of love. You dont want to hurt the one you love so you put the necessary protections in place to prevent that from happening. In this case, that means guarding your heart.
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What Does The Bible Say About Guarding Your Heart And Mind
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What Is The Context Of Proverbs : 23
In the book of Proverbs 4, Scripture encourages readers to obtain wisdom at all costs. Listing tips and tricks for gaining understanding, knowledge, and insight from the Lord, verse 23 summarizes the emphasis of the entire text: If we wish to have a deep possession of godly ideologies, we must take good care of our hearts, for what we think becomes who we are, and who we are flows from the inner depths of our souls.
Most likely written by King Solomon and other unnamed scholars, the book of Proverbs offers instruction, wisdom, and understanding to those in Israel and still applies to us today.
In Proverbs 4:23 specifically, The Passion Translation describes this set of verses as the Father’s instructions for wise and godly living. Broken into four sections, Proverbs 4 lists
- Instructions for Wisdom
- Healing Words , and
- Watch Where You’re Going .
Surrounding verse 23, Proverbs 4 tells us to “keep hold of instruction” , “be attentive to my words” , and “keep them within your heart” , for “they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh” . Here, we can identify that the overall theme of this chapter is not to merely guard our hearts but guard the godly words of instruction God’s given us in that place.
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What Are Issues Of The Heart
Since we understand that the heart refers to the mind and the heart in Western terminology, we can understand the issues of the heart to be anything that we face. These would include our challenges with our identity in Christ, problems with our children, coworkers, friendsin fact, anything that affects your life is an issue of the heart.
How Can I Protect My Heart In Love
Follow the five steps below to help you protect your heart the next time you fall in love, according to experts.
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Think About Where Your Feet Are Going
Have you ever been headed somewhere but got distracted by your thoughts or something thats happening around you only to end up in a different place than you intended? If we dont think about where were going, we may end up going in the wrong direction.
Its one thing to be going straight ahead, its quite another to be going straight ahead in the wrong direction!
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it .
What Flows Out Of The Heart
But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.
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If God And His Law Are Not In It It Is Not True Love; It Is Your Heart Deceiving You
Accepting others “as they are”, with all their flaws, lawlessness and unrighteousness before God, is a form of false love, a feeling from your deceitful heart that tells you that there’s nothing wrong with someone choosing to live that way, but there’s actually something wrong with you if you refuse to accept them with their sin; that feeling says if you reject them you are being judgmental. This deception will bind you to someone who deliberately chooses evil because of pride and rebellion, and they too will soon break your heart!
Before going back to His Father Jesus warned His disciples about what they are going to find out there, in a fallen world; He was well aware that a fallen world is a dangerous place and they would have found abuse and persecution, so He gave them the following Commandment:Matthew 10:16 – “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be wise as snakes and harmless as doves.”
What Guarding Your Heart Actually Means
The Bible tells us to guard our hearts because not doing so can cause great difficulties for us. So lets look at what it means to guard your heart. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word guard in the following ways:
In both of the scenarios above, some action is required on our part. We must do something if we are going to control or protect our hearts. Its important for us to understand that the things in our hearts drive our actions. So we must ensure that our hearts are pure and in line with Gods teaching.
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Guarding The Heart And A Right View Of The Word Of God
Egypt was stricken with one calamity after one another, and Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites from their bondage. Pharaohs hard heart resulted in him standing against God Almighty delivering the people of God from Egypt .;
In Psalm 95:7-8, King David pleaded with the people not to harden their hearts in rebellion against the Lord as they did in the wilderness. Having a right view of the word of God and submitting in obedience to the teaching of Scripture in all of life is the best way to guard against rebellion against God.