Guarding Our Heart

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” James 1:14 is the template that reveals the inner workings of a gap. It says, “But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

Our freedom was bought by Jesus’ shed blood. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” In Romans 6:1 Paul asked his readers, “…Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound?”

Verse 2 says, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Ask yourself: Do I live like I am encapsulated in true grace? When a ‘live’ tempting thought flits into our mind, we must instantly fight it through the truth of verse 11. It says, “…reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We can only effectively guard our heart when God’s word is hidden in it. His truth within is like a sentinel on duty 24/7. The moment the temptation comes, the sentinel alerts us through the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Galatians 5:16 says, “…Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” That is why James said that we are enticed through the sin hidden in our hearts. It is illegal for an authentic follower of Christ to flirt with fleshly temptations. Flirting is synonymous with entanglement.

1 Peter 2:16 says, “As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” Galatians 5:1 says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

How do we become entangled again? Paul wrote to Timothy about this very subject. In 2 Timothy 2:3 he told Timothy, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

Verse 4 says, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life…” We are satan’s target. He seeks ways to entangle us. He sets up ‘gaps’ through his fiery darts. 

Though this is speaking about warfare against Judah, we can apply this to our lives. Isaiah 7:5-7 says, “…Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves…”

A gap, in our freedom in Christ, is made by a seemingly innocuous suggestion ~ a fiery dart. If we do not block it with truth from God’s word, the gap will widen. Remember that we are bondservants, our will is to do the will of the Father.

When we lose sight of that, our derailment is set in place. Romans 6:13 says, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

I recently read about F. B. Meyer. I am going to paraphrase what he said. He was a young pastor at the time. The Lord had laid it on his heart to minister to those recently released from jail.

The pattern was for those men to go right back to what held them in bondage. F. B. Meyer’s zeal was aroused. He knew they could be free. He hadn’t learned at that time what is was to be a slave of Christ.

His definition penetrated deeply. It is a condition of our mind in which we are oblivious to what others might say or think. Our desire would be that the light of God’s approval was warm and fresh upon our heart.

Ephesians 6:5-7 says for the bondservant to be obedient, “…with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”

According to Ephesians 1:5 we are already accepted in the Beloved. There is nothing that we can do or should do to be accepted. When we look for man’s approval, we become a man pleaser, and cease to serve the Lord from our heart.

When seeking to please others, we fall into the trap of not being able to say ‘no’ when asked to do something. We must stay in the groove that the Lord has called us to walk in. If we follow after others, or we seek others approval, we have ceased to follow in the Lord’s footsteps.

Isaiah 42:13 says, “The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies.” Let me capture a scene of His zeal.

John 2:13-17 was the scene. Jesus saw what was taking place in the temple. Verse 15 says, “When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changer’s money and overturned the tables.”

At that moment He fulfilled Psalm 69:9. It says, “Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on Me.” The fleshly activity in God’s house brought reproach.

Jesus bore the reproach of our sins when He hung on the cross. Romans 15:1 is our mandate for this hour in history. It says, “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

Verse 3 says, “For even Christ did not please Himself…” Paul then quoted Psalm 69:9. The Lord’s name is being reproached by those who have set themselves against this country—from within and without.

Will we take up His mantle to intercede? In Galatians 1:10 Paul set an example for us. It says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

Today our nation votes. This was written last week. I love His timing. Let us unite to intercede for our country in this crucial time. Daniel 2:21 says, “And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.”

I noticed something when I read a very familiar passage in my daily reading. Here is my preface. The king of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel. God instead blessed them through the words He told Balaam to speak.

The next scene was what took place at Baal Peor. An Israelite man and a Moab woman were speared through by Phinehas. My focus is on what he did rather than the reason he did it. Through his intercession the plague was stopped.

Numbers 25:11 says, “Phinehas…has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.”

Pause and think about this in terms of our country’s present state. Ezekiel 22:30 was God’s call for an intercessor. It says, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

Psalm 106:29-31 says, “Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stopped. And that was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations forevermore.”

We exemplify the Lord when we intercede on the behalf of others and for our nation. He is right now in heaven interceding for us. Romans 8:34 says, “…who also makes intercession for us.”

Do you exemplify Him in His zeal?

While I was talking to a friend, these words came out of my mouth. ‘We often get emotionally tangled up from our thoughts about our past.’ The Lord has a way so that we can instantly bypass that entanglement.

Think of why they perform bypass surgeries. Arteries have narrowed or become blocked. It causes the heart muscle to be short of blood. Let’s take that into the spiritual sense. We keep our past alive through our negative fears or thoughts. We jam up our lines of communication with the Lord and with others.

Our worship comes from our heart. Worship flows when our focus is on the Lord. It stops when we look back. Our spiritual bypass surgery is praise. It is performed with a thought rather than a scalpel. 

Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” Enthroned in the Hebrew means to dwell, remain, sit, and abide. The Lord is always present. Yet He uniquely presences Himself in our praise. 

Our praise is like an open invitation to Him, an expression of love from a free flowing heart. His enthronement leaves a fragrance that cannot be compared to anything on this earth. Mary’s act of worship filled the house with, “…the fragrance of the oil” according to John 12:3.

The next time you have a fearful or negative thought flit into your mind, bypass it through praise. Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalm 146:2 says, “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”

When I think about the word ‘transform’ my mind goes to Romans 12:2. It says, “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Encapsulated, the verse was emphasizing mind renewal through the truth of God’s word. Then our thoughts, words, and actions will be living proof of our conformity to His will.

Transformed~metamorphosis. 

I love to think about how the crawling caterpillar eats leaves. It is all it knows. Until metamorphosis~then a butterfly that flits from flower to flower. Leaves are nowhere in its mind. It delightfully drinks rich nectar. 

When we renew our mind with truth, our old thought patterns metamorphosis. They die to give way to life-giving thoughts. I used to dwell in negative thinking about myself. I renewed my mind through verses like Psalm 119:73 and Jeremiah 1:5. I daily rejoice in God’s creative ingenuity of how He made me.

Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground. When God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life~metamorphosis. Adam became a fully functioning man. He creatively named all the animals. Think about it~ the zebra, gorilla, starfish, and butterfly all received their names as soon as they were presented to him.

As we gaze upon the Lord of glory, our innermost being is transformed. We no longer think as we did. The veil from lies is stripped away. We behold Him through a new spiritual lens. Joshua lingered. Let us linger until we see ourselves as He sees us~redeemed from the cocoon of our negative past thoughts.

Oh that Mary’s example may be said about each of us. Do others realize that you have spent time with Jesus? Do you carry that fragrance with you wherever you go and to those you interact with?

Acts 4:13 says, “And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Evidence demands a verdict.

John wrote about the disciples’ experience with Jesus. 1 John 1:1 says about it, “…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.”

They walked daily with the Lord. There were eyewitnesses of His works. Think about being there when He multiplied the five loaves and two fishes. It was a paltry amount for 5,000 men. Yet the disciples handed out the food and held the baskets with the leftovers.

Moses spent time with the Lord. When he came down from the mountain he did not know that his face was shining with God’s glory. Exodus 34:29 says, “…that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”

2 Corinthians 3:13 says that Moses had to put a veil over his face. Yet, we are invited to gaze upon the Lord through our intimate communion. Like Mary, we are never the same. Verse 18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We are transformed by dwelling in His permeating Presence.

David wrote his Psalms pre-cross. We read them post-cross. Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands.” As we know from Philippians 1:6 that the Lord will continue His work until He takes us into eternity.

Here is something the Holy Spirit pointed out to me just now as I was proofreading my next book, “Persistent Faith: silent trust in God alone.” Exodus 33:7 says, “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting…”

I always read it before as if it were a separate tent. It was his living quarters! He made his life the place where he met with God. Liken this to our quiet time. We set aside time, away from our busy life, to meet with the Lord in intimate communion.

Dwelling in the present in His Presence is like Mary. Luke 10:38-42 is a narrative about two sisters. Verse 38 says that Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. Verse 39 says of Mary, “…who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.”

Verse 40-41 might be a good example for us of staying too busy to spend quality time communing with the Lord~sitting at His feet. The narrative says that Martha was distracted with much serving. Jesus spoke to her in verse 41, “…Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.”

Here is my take away. Jesus said in verse 42, “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part…” I love John 12:3 which was written about Mary. She, “…took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair…”

Note how her act of love affected her and everyone around her. The verse went on to say, “…And the house was filled with the fragrance of oil.” Sitting at Jesus’ feet prepared her for the good work He preordained for her to walk in. 

Ephesians 2:10 says that the good works He has prepared for us were, “…prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Hebrews 13:21 clues us into His purpose for our trials. It says, “Make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ…” 

We would be incomplete if we resisted the very tool the Lord was using to shape us into the vessel He needs to accomplish His purpose in our lives. When I think of the word ‘working’ my mind always goes back to when I was learning how to do wheel pottery.

The clay is dry and hard. No one can form anything until the clay is prepared properly. It requires a lot of water, kneading, and patience. Once the clay is ready to be shaped, it is placed on a potter’s wheel.

At that point the wheel begins to spin. My hands were too weak to center my clay. My instructor had to place his hands over my hands to help me. The essential step of pressure causes the clay to center in the potter’s hands. Only then can it be shaped.

The Lord uses our trials to center us on Him. Even a mature believer can become distracted and derailed. Philippians 1:6 assures us that what the Lord has begun in our lives He will complete. Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Since His way is perfect, His desire is that we walk in it. He uses our trials as verse 32 says to make our way perfect. Perfect is not perfection, but rather the word used for the maturing process.