Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. [Proverbs 4:23 NIV]
The heart is a vital organ in the human body, but this verse is not referring to the amazing body part which pumps blood throughout our body. In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, although the word could refer to the physical organ of the body, the heart was considered the seat of emotions but it was also the part of us where our thoughts are processed and also the source of the will. Interestingly, even in this scientific age we speak about the heart as the part of us which is capable of love for another human being. However, the Bible sees the heart as the real person where we do all our thinking and where we make important decisions affecting our lives. So the Hebrew generally refers to our brain function as well as the heart as we know it.
So we are instructed to guard our heart. And the aphorism (proverb) gives us a good reason - "for everything you do flows from it." We speak of being 'half-hearted' and that is not talking about only part of our physical heart functioning although it may look as if we are reducing the volume of blood flowing through our arteries and veins. But when we are half-hearted about doing something, the reason is that we are not fully committed. This is related to our will. It is also related to our emotions and our thought processes. God wants us to be anything but half-hearted. He wants total commitment in His service. He wants our affection, our mind, our desires, our life, our purposes, our will - He wants our whole being.
I wear a cheap watch which can also tell me how many steps I have taken and also my heart rate. I have often read my heart rate when I have climbed a steep hill on my bicycle and then watched how quickly the rate returned to normal. We need to monitor our heart in God's terms. Is our affection for God what it was last month, last year, five years ago, ten years ago etc? Has our heart affection and loyalty decreased or increased? This is vitally important for our spiritual well-being. It is possible to attend church gatherings out of duty and all the while we are not really wanting to be there. We blame the seats for being uncomfortable and that is why we are unhappy. We blame the preacher for being dull or the musician for being too slow, too loud, too fast. We blame the choice of hymns for being too modern or too old fashioned. We blame the church leadership for their lack of organisational skills. You get the point. But do we look within ourselves and maybe suggest that the problem lies with our hearts? We are not in a right spiritual condition.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 NIV]
This prayer is at the centre of Jewish worship nowadays, both morning and evening. It is at the heart of the Jewish religion. It is also relevant to 21st Century Christians. Do we love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength?
In the last book of the New Testament, there are letters from the risen Christ to the seven churches in the province of Asia. The first of these letters was written to the church at Ephesus and Jesus has commendation for this church - for their hard work and perseverance and for the high standard of conduct which they were maintaining by refusing to tolerate 'wicked people.' They have 'endured hardships' also. But there is a sudden change of mood and the message from the Lord is, "I hold this against you." There is much to commend but there is a serious issue to be addressed - they have forsaken the love that they had at first (Revelation 2:1-7). Could this be said of us? Could this be said of our church? Have we kept going with a routine and have not lowered standards of ethics and conduct, but our heart is not in the church. Our love for the Lord has diminished significantly and is almost non-existent.
And so the message from the writer of the book of Proverbs is so relevant to us all today. "Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
Photo by Karren McPherson. She invested considerable time and effort to come up with these imaginative and creative images to illustrate the Proverbs blogs. Thanks again, Karren.
Comments