Proverbs: The Art of Wise LivingSample

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.— Proverbs 4:23

Reflection: In this chapter, the speaker urges his son to do everything he can to gain wisdom and warns him of the dangers of following evil and wickedness instead of wisdom and life.

At the core of his argument is this: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Translated from Hebrew, heart means mind, conscience, center, and middle (Google Translate). Everything we do, everything we are, starts with the heart, which then crafts our thoughts, words, and actions, thereby forming our entire personhood.

Guarding your heart is a big responsibility, perhaps one of the most important you will be tasked with during your journey on earth. You might often hear this verse applied to purity, but it goes far beyond that. There’s an exhaustive list of things from which to protect ourselves: anger, evil, idolatry, dishonesty, temptation...the list goes on.

As you’re going through this difficult daily work of keeping your heart and mind away from these things, it might feel like you’re fighting against yourself, but in reality, you’re fighting for yourself...to be the pure, holy, righteous (to use a favorite word from the Proverbs) child of God you are destined to be.

You’re fighting for your integrity, your reputation, your whole identity. And you are not doing it alone. You’re doing this with God, and it’s not just for yourself, it’s also for the people around you.

On paper, it sounds so easy. In practice, it can be another story. What happens when you feel caught up in sin, powerless to do anything but continue down the same path? Or when your heart has been so worn down by your past, the behavior of others, guilt, and sin that you don’t feel like you can fight off any more attacks?

You don’t have to fix everything at once. Simply take it a step at a time, recognizing your areas of temptation. What is one thing you can do today to protect your heart? And start there.

And give yourself grace. God loves you, and He promises to forgive you when you come to Him and ask.

Prayer: Lord, I fail daily to protect myself from thoughts, images, and other objects of the world. Give me Your strength as I guard my heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.