Keep Thy Heart
Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
The heart in Scripture is the soul, or personality of the individual. It is what makes us, us.
It is made up of mind or thoughts; heart, or affections; and will, or the limited power we have to do.
If we are born again (the Bible was written for God’s people), then we are warned to “keep our hearts”.
We are not to let it wander around into things it should not go near.
We are told to hold it close to God, by the exercise of willing love.
(If you say you can not will love; I disagree.
If you are talking about the affections which fly here and there; no you can not do much with them, until they are brought into subjection to Christ Jesus.
But when we are born again, we are given power to exercise our will for God in a new way. The will becomes the holder of all precious materials for God. One of these is love. And as such, we will to love, what God loves.)
Then we will to stay close to the Altogether Lovely One, Jesus Christ.
We have become so surrounded by the World’s terms and definitions about them; that we have forgotten the reality of the power of God in our lives.
The world says love is an emotional response to someone or something.
God says love comes from Him, into our hearts, and is returned to Him by an act of our will.
1 John 4:16,19 “And we have known and believed the love God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
We love him, because He first loved us.”
Believe is another word, the World has misused. It says it is a action of the mind, which grasps the concept of something that has proved itself.
But God says it is an action of the will, whereby we place our whole being on Him, and His Word.
Mark 9:24 “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
This father willed to believe. Even praying Jesus to help his unbelief.
To believe is the action of faith.
And faith is placed within us by the Holy Spirit, when we come to Christ.
It works in us to believe: place our whole selves on Christ.
That is the action part, where we do His Will.
So we are told to “Keep our hearts” and we are to do this “with all diligence”.
It takes a lot of effort to keep our hearts close to Christ.
We have a tendency to “slide” away from Him. There are many temptations in this world.
Jeremiah 3:14 “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord;…”
Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
But, as we love Him, we grow stronger and stronger in that love. We are never out of danger, till we reach our home in heaven, but He has made a way of escape, even in the temptation:
1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
For out of it (our hearts- our souls) are the issues of life.
Issues, or the source of life.
When we are saved, we are given eternal life, which is a condition of life.
(It is not just to live forever. Everyone will live forever, someplace. The born again ones, in Heaven with God, in bliss. The lost, in the Lake of Fire, in torment.)
This condition of life is Christ’s Life within us by the Holy Spirit.
We are to hang on to Him. Steady ourselves with His Arm. (We need a lot of steadying)
And we are to use all the grace that He gives us, to keep hanging on to Him.
He never leaves us, but we often leave Him.
That is why hanging on, keeping our hearts for Him, is so important.
Love Him, for He loved you with an Everlasting Love.
Trust Him, for He is Faithful.
Believe, and Obey Him, for He leads us in the best way to go.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 