Keep Your Heart
The English Bible uses the word “heart” hundreds of times—mostly to refer to the mind or spirit. Ifit is important to take care of your physical heart, it is really important to care for your spiritual heart.
Solomon once said: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). He was not talking about our “blood pumper.” He was talking about our mind. He was saying that we must guard our thinking and be careful about what we expose our mind to. When we do something that is bad, we first had to think about doing it in our hearts. That is why Jesus said: “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts” (Matthew 15:18-19). We must be very careful to protect our hearts from evil thoughts and desires.
If we allow our heart to dwell on bad things, our heart can become “hardened” (Ephesians 4:18). That is very bad, since a hard heart keeps a person from listening to God’s words and the words of those who love us (like parents) when they warn us about danger in our lives.
When we do wrong, we should immediately repent and show proper sorrow for our actions. Otherwise, our heart will be both hardened and “impenitent” (Romans 2:5).
We must not allow our hearts to be “trained in covetous practices” (2 Peter 2:14), which means always thinking about things that we want and we desire. Instead, we should use our minds to think of the needs of others, how we might help others, and how we can do God’s work.
We must try every day to have a “pure” heart (1 Timothy 1:5) that loves other people. And we must work to have a “true” heart (Hebrews 10:22) that seeks God and desires to obey Him. We must love God with all our heart (Matthew 22:37).
And always remember that Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
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