Guard Your Heart

Today I had a conversation with a man who was struggling to understand his fairly new bride. He has a genuine heart to love her, to meet her needs and to grow their relationship in the Lord. Yet he is constantly faced with the feeling that he is insensitive and does everything wrong because she “has a logical argument for everything that makes complete sense.” The problem is, logic that is based on feelings is not really logic at all. It can result in a justification for those feelings that makes sense, but if it is not based on fact, on truth, then it is not really logic. Feelings change. Truth does not.

We have all been given, or possibly given to others, the advice to “just follow your heart.” That is stupid advice! Really. It is. Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  That is truth. Our hearts, which are more often than not controlled by our feelings, lie to us. They lie! They tell us that our perception of a person or situation is true because we see it that way. But our perception is skewed by our experiences, our desires, our self-esteem, and a hundred other possible things. We cannot trust our hearts to tell us the truth, let alone lead us in the right path.

So why, then, does the Lord tell us repeatedly that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? If we can’t trust our hearts, if they lie to us, how can we use this flawed instrument to love the Lord? Well, as Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) says, we must “Guard [our hearts] above all else, for it determines the course of [our lives].” A heart that is well guarded can be a precious instrument for the Lord and His service.

How do we do that? The Word of God is a protection for our naturally evil-bent hearts. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” In fact, I would recommend reading all of Psalm 119. Over and over it tells us that God’s Word is a protection, a guide, a light, a fortress for our hearts. That is because truth, God’s truth, helps us to see and respond to the world and the people in it in a way that is based on reality, not feelings or perception.

So often people see God’s Word as a limiting force. But the truth is, it gives us freedom-freedom from wrong choices, from the consequences of sin, from broken relationships, from those things that would seek to steal our joy. Psalm 119:32 says, “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” Picture that! Think about how it would feel to live your life free of all the sin, the feelings, the misunderstandings, the broken relationships that burden you. Get into the Word of God. ALL of it! We can’t pick and choose what we want to believe and expect to be free. We believe all of His Word, or we believe none of it. Read it. Know it. Let it guard your heart. And then love Him at full speed!