Guard Your Spiritual Heart
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23
Our spiritual hearts are revealed to God by our thoughts, and we live out of our hearts. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) Above all else, guard your heart and your thoughts.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) This verse indicates the need for a pure heart that produces pure thoughts. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) These verses tell us how important a heart filled with love is to God, because God is love. We become Christ-like when our minds are filled with the Word and our hearts are filled with God’s love. Love motivates us to serve the Lord, love brings us closer to the Lord, and love makes the Lord’s commands natural to us. I can have great faith but without love then I am nothing.
We guard our thoughts by having a heart filled with God’s love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31) Our love increases in our hearts as we reflect the Lord’s love to people. The more we follow the Spirit, the more our hearts will be filled with the Lord’s love and the more we are guarding our hearts. The Spirit will guide our ministry such that our hearts will be filled with love drawing us ever closer to the Lord.
Continual spiritual growth is necessary to sustain and increase God’s love in our hearts. So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:10) We live to bear fruit which continually increases our knowledge of God’s will.
Today, guard your heart by guarding your thoughts. Seek to keep your thoughts on reflecting Christ in whatever you are doing.
Prayer: Lord, help me to guard my thoughts so they are pleasing to you and give me a pure heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen