GUARD

GUARD / January 27, 2014

Atherosclerosis is defined as the hardening of your arteries due to accumulated cholesterol plaques and scarring in the artery walls.  The result over time is an unhealthy heart because blood cannot flow easily towards it.  This disease is very similar to what I call the “ALL ABOUT ME, MYSELF and I” terminal illness.  This illness over time BLOCKS God from your heart, and when your heart can no longer except instruction from the God of the universe, it becomes hardened.

This leads me to my WORD of the day.  GUARD.  Above all else, GUARD your heart, for everything you do flows from it.  Proverbs 4:23.  This command to GUARD your heart is a warning for protect our hearts from becoming hardened.  How does one guard their heart?  I’m going to share with you what I have learned the HARDENED WAY. 

I have spent several years NOT guarding my Spiritual heart, without realizing it.  It all began when I started putting myself FIRST in my life.  I would complain about one thing, then grumble about two, sometimes I judged others unfairly, I worried about many pointless things and worse I focused on myself.  While each of these separately, seemed little and justifiable at the moment, like a little bag of chips or a little scoop of ice cream isn’t good for the heart, over time when combined, my spiritual heart became hardened.  It was clogged up with WRONG THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS, so the ultimate result was an overflowing of wrong thoughts, words and emotions.  I became very sad when the Lord revealed a x-ray of my heart to me.

I would like to share something with you today in hopes you can bypass a hardened heart in your own life.  I was blessed enough to grow up in church and surrounded by very Godly family members.  The older I became the more I thought I knew about the ways of God, and became “TOO COMFORTABLE” in my walk with the Lord.  A too comfortable attitude, led to a, “I know all things” attitude, which led to “I’m better than others” attitude.  YUCK! Just like our heart is the most important organ in our body, our inner self and spirit is vital to our connection with our Creator.  In this verse, “Above all else, Guard your heart…”  heart represents are inner selves, our emotions, intellect, desires and our wills.   Basically, like Matthew 12:34 says, “The words we speak flow out of our hearts.”  When “I, myself, and Me” become a part of your vocabulary, it says your heart is focused on YOU, not God.  God challenged me during my quiet time with Him one day, “LISTEN to how many times you make statements regarding your own well-being and not that of others.”  The results weren’t pretty. 

I am thankful because I am living with a soft, pliable heart before the LORD today because God continued to rescue me from myself and all my careless acts that I justified as “no big deal.”  He took my heart and wrapped it in his great BIG TRUTH, bringing His WORD alive to me as my WORD for the day.  “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will GUARD your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 The TRUTH in this WORD is heart changing.  God sent his son, Jesus Christ to GUARD our heart. God is our GUARD from a hardened heart. BUT we have to humble ourselves and admit we can’t GUARD our hearts on our own.  My WORD from the WORD today is GUARD.  Exchange all the I’s and Me’s in your life and lay them down at the GUARD’s feet and ask him to GUARD your heart from becoming hardened.  He will joyfully GUARD you, because YOU MATTER to Him enough to be created in His great big world.

HUGS.  SMJ.