When Solomon refers to guarding the heart, he really
means the inner core of a person, the thoughts, feelings, desires, will, and choices
that make that person who he/she is. The Bible tells us that our thoughts often
dictate who we become, Proverbs 23:7,
27:19.
Your mind reflects who you really
are, not simply your actions or words. That is why God examines the heart of a
person, not their outward appearance and what they appear to be, 1 Samuel 16:7.
Just as there are many diseases and
disorders that can affect the physical heart, there are many conditions of the
spiritual heart that can weaken the growth and development as a believer.
Atherosclerosis is a hardening of the arteries due to accumulated cholesterol
plaques and scarring in the artery walls.
Hardening of our spiritual heart
can also occur. Hardening of the heart occurs when we are presented with God’s
truth, and we refuse to acknowledge or accept it.
There are many things that can
harden the heart and lead a person to ignore God or deny God, and just like
cholesterol blocks blood flow, they keep a believer from having a free flow of
God’s peace and blessings derived from obedience. Guarding against a rebellious
spirit and cultivating a spirit of submissive obedience to God’s word,
therefore, is the first step in guarding the heart.
The Lord used the blisters on my
hands to explain to me how we can harden our heart:
I had been gardening, the roots on the weeds
were deep and the soil was mostly clay. By time I finished I had two big
blisters on each hand. When the blisters broke my hands were sensitive to
whatever I touched and caused me much discomfort. After they healed I did some
more weeding. But this time I only had one small blister on each hand, they
were a bit sore but the blisters healed quickly and I didn't have the
sensitivity to touch like before. From that point on I had no more problems
when I did my gardening that summer because I had developed calluses on my
hands.
This is the perfect picture of how
ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit affects our spiritual heart. At
first when the Lord convicts us of something wrong in our life, it hurts, we're
sensitive and it bothers us. When we ignore it He will again convict us of our
wrong doing. But when we continue to refuse to allow His conviction to change
us, our heart becomes callused (hard and unable to feel). Just like my hands,
after a while I had built up hard calluses impervious to any more hurting. It's
not that the Lord stops trying to convict us, it's just that we now have a hard
heart that no longer senses His correction.
2 Corinthians 3:14 (Amplified Bible), "In fact, their minds
were grown hard and calloused [they had become dull and had lost the power
of understanding]; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old
covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies [on their hearts], not being
lifted [to reveal] that in Christ it is made void and done away."
Our youngest child Timmy was born
with a congenital heart defect. Timmy had cleft valves and a hole in his heart.
He had surgery at the age of fourteen months old to help correct this problem
or he would have died before the age of two.
Heart murmurs are abnormal flow
patterns due to faulty heart valves and/or a hole in the heart that allows
blood to pass from the left side of the heart to the right side. Heart valves act as doors to prevent backward
flow of blood into the heart.
Spiritual heart murmurs occur when
believers engage in complaining, gossip, disputes, and contention. Believers
are instructed many times to avoid grumbling, murmuring, and complaining, Exodus 16:3; John 6:43; Philippians 2:14.
When we do these things or participate in these behaviors, believers shift
their focus away from the plans, and purposes of God, to the things of the world.
They want their own purposes and agendas. God sees this as a lack of faith, and
without faith, it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6. He also sees this as disobedience. "Let
no one delude and deceive you with empty excuses and groundless arguments [for
these sins], for through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
rebellion and disobedience" Ephesians 5:6. We talk about people
(gossip), we get mad at situations or people, and we complain to others when
things seem unfair or unjust. Then we make excuses (in our minds) on why it's acceptable
to do these things. To make matters worse we then go around rallying others to
help us justify our behavior.
Instead, Christians are instructed
to strive for contentment in all things, trusting in God to provide what is
needed in His good time, Hebrews 13:5.
We must guard against a complaining spirit and strive to develop a spirit of
gratitude and trust. When we are content to trust God, believing and trusting
in Him to work out whatever the situation may be; however long it might take;
only then will we have peace and joy that guards our hearts.
Timmy lived in a state of
congestive heart failure from the moment of his birth until his surgery. Congestive heart failure is an inability of
the heart to successfully pump blood through the body due to weaknesses within
its walls. Timmy's was due to an abnormal enlargement of the heart (caused by
the stress on his heart) .Timmy symptoms caused him to be weak and unable to
exert energy without causing him severe sweating and breathing difficulties. He
was also highly susceptible to illnesses. He couldn't enjoy his life. Every day
was a struggle to survive.
The spiritual equivalents are
anger, giving in to temptation, and pride. Of all of the deadly sins, anger can
be the hardest one to avoid. Anger acts like a toxin in the body, both
physically and spiritually, and makes a believer more vulnerable to the
temptation to hurt others with our actions and words. Ephesians 4:31-32 instructs, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,
brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you.” Anger also grows, the more we dwell on what
caused us to be angry, the more it grows and intensifies. If not brought under
control it will explode. Anger takes all of our energy and consumes us.
Every Christian is locked in an
unrelenting war with demonic forces. Many of us become so intent on fighting
the external spiritual war that we forget that much of our battle is not with
external forces, but is within our own mind and thoughts. James 1:14-16 tells us, “but each person is tempted when they are
dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth
to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.” Sin always
begins in the mind.
I've seen Christian's go around
rebuking Satan in the name of the Lord all the while if they looked in the
mirror of their heart, they would see the real problem is within their own
heart and mind The Apostle Paul tells us to take every thought captive, so that
it conforms to the will of God, 2
Corinthians 10:3-5. A sinful action
starts as a thought before we actually carry it out. So we must refuse to even
think about any wrongful action, and we cannot play out scenarios in our mind
of what we would say or do if we had our way. (How many of us have laid down at
night re-playing over and over what we would like to say to this person or what
we would like to happen to that person?)
Proverbs 16:18 tells us that pride leads to destruction. Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone
proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord…” Pride was the first
great sin of Satan, when he thought that he could be like God and incited one-third
of the angels to rebel in heaven, Ezekiel
28:17. When we want our own way, we
are being prideful.
As I look back on Timmy's first
fourteen months of his life; it was full of anxiety, struggles and hardships.
However, after his corrective heart surgery his life (and mine) changed
dramatically. He was strong, happy, and full of laughter and energy.
Perhaps
God needs to do corrective heart surgery on some of us. Maybe He needs to
scrape the calluses off that we have allowed to be built up on our heart.
When we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us,
instruct us and guide us, we will be strong, content and have strength to face
whatever comes our way. Dwelling on: "whatever is true, whatever is worthy of
reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if
there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
think on and weigh and take account of these things, fix your minds on them"
Philippians 4:8 AMP. These are the things we should think on that will help
guard our hearts and minds. Remember the thoughts we think are
our own choice!
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