Keepers of our hearts

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.

What is it to keep our hearts?  Does it mean we close the heart off?  Do we never fully reveal ourselves, never fully allow others in?

What are the issues of life?  The daily mundane routines of life?  Our spiritual life? 

What is it then, to keep our hearts and how, if indeed we even can, do we control the issues that come out of it?

Grasping and understanding what God desires of us and for us can sometimes feel like an overwhelming and impossible task.

Create in me a CLEAN HEART O GOD! the Psalmist prayed. 

Is it true that only God can cleanse and wash our hearts?  God, Who knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts?  God, the One Who gives the desire of our heart?

If so, then the question is, how can we keep these hearts? 

By paying attention to what we allow to influence us, that’s one way.  By watching carefully what ideas, thoughts, visual pictures and sounds – words and music included – that we give our time and attention to.

The heart, the physical organ, is the unifying factor in the functioning of our bodies as a whole.  Every drop of blood passes through our heart and by that heart is pumped out into every cell of our bodies.  If the brain stops working, we are still alive.  If the heart stops pumping, we are no longer alive, life has left our body.

It is the same with this spiritual heart the Psalmist is talking about.  Thoughts come from our minds, influenced and affected by the things we've allowed into it. 

• ·        The conversations we have with other people
• ·        The movies or TV shows we watch
• ·        The books and magazines we read
• ·        Pictures we look at
• ·        Things we discover on the internet

Romans 12:2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The renewal of ourselves comes from the renewing of our minds to Gods truth.  Our five senses are continually taking in data from all around us, and then circulating that information and emotion through the spiritual heart on a constant basis just as every drop of our blood circulates through our physical heart.  Even when we are sleeping, our minds are churning, thinking, and the spiritual heart is sorting, organizing and deciding what it will keep, how the data will be processed and what will be discarded.

Keep our (spiritual) hearts with all diligence, the psalmist warns us, for it is with that self same heart that we will believe to receive righteousness, the peace of God that passes all understanding and trust in the Lord with all of that heart.

With all our hearts, we pray Gods merciful grace be bountiful toward you in all ways and your heart be created clean in His image.  When we confess our sin and receive the gift of Eternal Life through Christ Jesus, He gives us a brand new heart! 

2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.