coffee talk: guarding your heart
June 11, 2008
We’re still Coffee Talking it up over here.
God tells us in His Word to guard our hearts. I’ve wrestled with what that means for years. My tendency has been to take it to the extreme, letting little in or out of my heart. I know that isn’t what God means, but I still don’t have a very clear picture of what He actually does.
And so I ask you…
What does it mean to guard your heart?
Talk amongst yourselves.
(And while you’re at it, will you also send up a prayer for my friend Amy who is giving birth to a baby girl today?)
I’ve always thought of it as protecting our hearts, the inner person that God sees, from things like unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, envy etc. Like continually uprooting anything that contaminates us on the inside, and gets in the way of our closeness with God and other people.
That’s so lovely about your friend. I hope it all goes well, and I’ll definitely pray :)
@atangie says:
Yeah for Amy! (and her awesome support team!)
I would say that guarding your heart has to do with reining it your desires so that you control them and they don’t control you.
The way I think of it, the heart defines who we are and what direction we will go in. We need to guard it and keep within it Godly ideas and visions, because if we let the things of this world enter then we will be prone to go in that direction.
I would go a little more in detail, but, like yesterday, I have to get ready for work now…
@cassgirl says:
SO PRAYIN AMY!!
Guarding Your heart- (my translation)
Guarding your heart is guarding God’s promises.
He gave me what’s in my heart.
I ALLOW what is filtered into and out of that vessel.
Unfortunately over the years it has grown plaque of anger, jealousy, and being stagnant.
But…
We have a God WHOM is full of grace and restoration and DO-OVERS and He allows us to have heart surgery every once an awhile only if we are willing.
Guarding your heart – is guarding God promises. Promises of eternal life, love, joy, desires of knowing Him, and us multiplying it back out.
There is nothing more spoken in the word of God then the “the heart”.. I guess guarding it should be on top of our list.
I haven’t even read the comments above, I just want to say GO AMY. I’m praying for her, and can’t wait to hear of your experience of being there with her when this all happens. Can’t wait for photos and all that deal. SO awesome. :)
For me, it’s not giving it away too easy. And when I do become vulnerable, rest in the assurance that God is holding it in is heart.
I dunno. That’s just off the top ‘o my head.
According to scripture, we are three part man. Body, soul (heart) and Spirit. The Soul or heart is the seat of our mind, will and emotions. So, I would think that to guard my heart, would mean to be careful as to what I allow into my heart, unforgiveness, lust, bitterness…to be careful about what i choose…. and to keep my emotions under the Lordship of Christ.
Just off the top of my head! :)
Here’s my take… from Proverbs 4!
attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
Verse 23 – Keep thy Heart with ALL DILIGENCE!…. for out of IT are the issues of life.
and from Joshua 22…
5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Serve (Wait on him) with all your heart and all your soul.
As Jesus revealed the Great Comandment to us all.
Guard you heart from evil.
The Bible is quite clear on what God dislikes. :-)
<B
Well LoveWill basically took my answer. I will have to be content to say I second his comments.
@mandythompson says:
what goes in must come out.
a lot of people of the dating age say “i’m guarding my heart” re: falling in love.
i don’t think that’s it at all.
i think its about guarding our heart from the things that will get in and spoil it, causing the overflow to be rotten & bad.
My answer is that verse in Phillipians… “Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
I like the other answers, though, too!
I agree with much of what’s been said…if we back up a little from the passage above (Katie’s comment) we see the presription for guarding our hearts:
The Lord is near! Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
So, I suppose this is telling us to pray about every situation so that our hearts will be guarded – our emotional center won’t go astray and wreak havoc with our judgment…I think…
oh, so many good things here. I have no conclusions, really (although love’s bringing up the context of the verse it awesome – it kind of spells it out, huh?) but I think this verse is connected to what Jesus said – “It is not what goes into a man, but what comes out of him that defiles him,” and then follows by naming off greed, lust, deceit, and so forth as things which come from him that defile him. Also there’s the verse which says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” So all of these together say that if these things which are gross to God are in your heart, they will come flowing out of your mouth and defile you. So guarding your heart would be putting all this away from you and being sensitive not to offend the Holy Spirit. Wow. I just pieced all that together … and now I need some heart surgery done on myself.
i’ve so appreciated everyone’s input so far… thank you for sharing your thoughts, your heart, with me about this.
@cassgirl says:
Is Alece Jr. here yet?
yes! new post up… NOW!
mandy raised a good point.
is there any application of this instruction to “guard your heart” in the area of our relationships with other people?
As a non-believer I can’t speak to your original question about what God means by “guarding your heart”.
As far as relationships to other people I would say it is better to not “guard” your heart but to listen it, even at the risk that you may get hurt.
I am probably taking this in the wrong context but the “heart” to me means the emotion of love. Love is something we either feel or we don’t. If we feel love towards someone it is better to act on this feeling then to try and surpress it out of fear we may be rejected. As the saying goes “It is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.”
Mandy said “i think its about guarding our heart from the things that will get in and spoil it, causing the overflow to be rotten & bad.” If this means to not allow our heart to become bitter when someone we feel love for hurts us I would agree.
What else can spoil our hearts besides having our love rejected?
Ed asks a great question…. ‘Onions’ always give me heartburn!
For those who believe God is IN their Hearts.
God should be the first and foremost in them – it is He who we should be feeling for most of all, before even our family or newborns. If we guard our Hearts to be containing of Him First then all else that is in them will be protected likewise.
If we place someone or something else above God there (in our Heart) then we allow the way of corruption the possiblity to enter our Heart.
Love of earthly things must perish one day and if we have given our hearts over to them – so will we.
Place your trust, and your Heart in the Incorruptible First and your love for all things shall be the same!
Through Him ALL things are possible. :-)
<B
good thoughts, guys.
i think the relational aspect of “guarding your heart” is the part i’m still mulling over. how much? how soon? to whom? etc. etc. etc.
There is no ‘one’ answer Leesh… ‘cept to put Him First… after that i think it vareis according to each one of us… you’ll probably ‘know’ if your doing ‘too’ much’ (because ego is involved) or too little – possibly same reason – or because of FEAR in the latter case.
FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real.
<B
How did I miss coffee week?? I love coffee. I loved this question too Alece.
For me guarding my heart is making sure I don’t love anyone or anything more than God.
As far as how we love other people, I think maybe (and I did not study this) not casting our pearls before swine might aply. We are called to love one another “deeply from the heart” (peter wrote it somewhere) though. I take that to mean we are to love the person God put smack in front of us, right now, to the best of our ablity and have wisdom with the people we choose to invest our time and energy with.
I expect my friends and loved ones to hurt me and disappoint me. They can’t help it. I know I will do the same to them. I think that is a huge part of the reason God commands us to forgive. He will always heal our hearts and our relationships if we let Him and that is what is best for us.
the downside of having cofee talks when i’m M.I.A. is that i miss out on all the dialogue until after the fact. ::sigh::
you guys have given me plenty of food for thought with all this.
thanks.
Alece,
Thank you as always for your great blog!
I wanted to chime in on this one, two years late! Better late than never, right?
The Hebrew word for “heart” is equivalent to how we would use the word “mind.” A simpler way to say this verse would be the children’s song, “Oh, be careful little eyes …” It’s just saying we need to be careful what we put into our minds.
Regarding guarding our hearts in relationships: while I think it’s important to always apply Godly wisdom to all aspects of our lives, including the timing of trust, I think it’s also important to not spiritualize our tendency toward fear and self-protection.
We speak so often of character, but I have come to see that vulnerability is one of the most Godly traits we could maintain. God pours out His love constantly and gets it pushed back in His face by the majority of humanity the majority of the time, generation after generation. Yet He never stops loving, giving, reaching out, etc. He remains vulnerable beyond our understanding, and I’m sure we cannot fathom the depth of grief He faces daily from how much all of us hurt Him–especially those of us who are redeemed.
For us to remain vulnerable in the context of past hurt is probably one of the most God-like traits–and one of the hardest–we could maintain.
God bless you in your ministry!
–Tim
http://www.timothydeanmills.com