Let’s talk about your heart today. You and I live in a hostile world and in my life I’ve experienced more than my fair share of hurt. And you’ve probably experienced similar – if not worse – hurt.
When you’ve been hurt, especially by other people, it’s easy to put up a wall inside and try to guard your heart from experiencing that pain ever again. Even if you haven’t done this, don’t you know people who come off so guarded toward others?
The Bible even has something to say specifically about this. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Recently, I talked to someone who defined this “guarding your heart” as being guarded in relationships, so you don’t get hurt. Because you never know if someone is trustworthy, or not.
Out of context, it does sounds as if this passage tells you to guard your heart from people. So I started to look more into this, because this definition of protecting ourselves is self-preservation. And the driving force behind that is… pride!
“I said, ‘I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence.'” (Psalms 39:1). You see, guarding is not about saving yourself or protecting yourself from others. It’s about keeping SIN out of your heart.
When you put yourself on-guard and keep others out, you deprive yourself of love! And not just feeling love, but sharing it with others, as well. And that is not God’s will. His will is to protect your heart from sin!
One of the best examples I can think of to illustrate both of these passages, is this: Imagine you’re fighting with your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, close friend. Especially in today’s hostile society, people lash-out when they’re angry, right?
Now you have two options – you can receive that anger-filled cut and lash out in return, which we often do. But reacting this way invites hurt and sin into your heart. Your other choice, is to guard your heart and muzzle your mouth, and choose to not participate in it!
People will do and say horrible things when they let their emotions get the best of them. But that doesn’t have to be you. And you don’t have to receive that!
How do you cope with such a hateful world? Have you boarded yourself up, isolated yourself from others? It’s time to break out and put the walls where they ought to be – against sin, against the hateful ploys of the enemy. But they should not be pitted against each other!
Let me know who you’ve built up your walls against… and what you’re going to do about it! Let’s talk about it on the Dani Johnson social media pages!
In great faith,
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