Guard Your Heart!

Today, my sweet Sunday School class had a precious time of study together in God’s Word and our topic was on betrayal. I want to share with you some points I took away from my time today at church. It centered on taming the tongue (James chapter 3) and the importance of guarding the heart. I hope this brings you some encouragement as I feel sure you can relate to this topic.

The heart is the center of a person. The innermost part of who you and I are. We know from God’s Word that God looks at the heart. We read over and over again the importance of turning our hearts towards God and keeping Him at the center of all we are. He judges the heart and He seeks out the hearts of people to be used for His glory.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”.

Now this one is a tough one for me. You see, I desire REAL relationship with people. I am not someone who can fake it. I despise playing the political game of “pretending” in order to climb the social status ladder. I am who I am and boy, do I have flaws. I am an extroverted person who desires friendship, but I desire real friendship. You know, the kind of friendship that can endure the hard aches of life.  I love people and I desire genuine relationships with those around me. One way we become closer to the people in our lives is by sharing our hearts with them. We put our guard down and we allow ourselves to become vulnerable with others. We tell them our innermost thoughts and secrets. We share private things with them and open up our lives like a book for them to read. I have found that this is how you become closer friends with another person. The truth is…this is risky. Sometimes this process backfires. I know you can relate when I tell you that not everyone is to be trusted. Just like me, you have had people betray you. You have probably had people in your life turn their backs on you. You have had people lie TO you and ABOUT you. You have entrusted private information with someone and they did not keep it private. People will disappoint you. But, you know what? I have been that person too. I have been the betrayer. I have broken another person’s trust and violated a friendship by not being true to them. I have lied and stretched the truth in order to make myself look better. I have harbored jealousy in my heart and I have made other people feel inferior. I have also betrayed God. I have had times where I walked away from Him through disobedience. There are times I have been lazy in reading His Word and I have forgotten to thank Him when He blessed me with undeserved blessings.  And…I was wrong!  What about you? Can you see yourself in any of these things?

Today, I am reminded that the heart is a precious thing and it should not be entrusted to just anyone.  We should guard our hearts! Our hearts belong to Christ and in keeping with His Word; we should seek to obey Him in all things. Our hearts must be centered on Him and His Word should be written on our hearts. Remember, my friend, that He is your safe place. He is who you should cry out to first! He is who you can trust with everything. When you have exciting news—-first, thank Him and glorify Him with praise. When you feel beaten down—-find a quiet place where you can cry out to Him and seek His face. When you are confused about a decision you need to make—grab your Bible and LISTEN for Him to guide you. When you are frustrated with another person—talk to God about it instead of calling up another friend in order to “vent”. Remember, our closest friend should be God. We should turn to Him first! He will never disappoint you, He has all the answers you need, and He is trustworthy.

Yes, guard your heart, my friend. Keep it HIS and allow Him to have His way in your life!    Glad you stopped by! ~Joy

I would love to hear your thoughts about this.  I encourage you to leave comments!