{A Matter of the Heart}

It's that time of year where red and pink are splattered everywhere. Normally those colors are forbidden to touch each other, but for some reason we've made an exception for ole Cupid. Seeing how the 14th is just around the corner, it'd make sense that I would do a post about love wouldn't it? Yeah, it would be fitting. But I'm not going to this time. I've notice a theme in my bible reading lately, all the verses that jump out at me emphasize this same common thread--the heart. So I guess you could sort of connect this post to Valentine's day!

"Above all else, guard your heart because the source of life flows from it."

~Proverbs 4:23

That's a pretty popular verse, so we might just be little numb to it. Try to read that verse, one word at a time, and let it's meaning really sink in.  

• Above ALL else--of highest value; it's worth more than the rest; it's of highest importance.  
• Guard--  Webster's dictionary describes the word guard as  "the act or duty of protecting or defending.", and describes the act of being "on guard" as "defensively watchful; alert.'' 
• Your heart-- your mind;your soul
• Because the source of life flows from it.-- This is the reason we are to defend, protect, and be on alert for that thing of high value; our heart! Because from our heart, flows the person that we are. 

You know that saying "you are what you eat"? well the same thing is true for our Spiritual nature. What we feed our heart, is what we become. If we're continually filling our minds with anger, jealousy, dis-contentedness, cursing, and other sins then how do we expect to have the pure heart and mind that God wants us to have? The kind that produces the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. The answer is that we can't .  James said it best it James 3:11 "Do clean and polluted water  flow from the same spring?" NO! Clean water flows from a spring that has a clean source, but the polluted water flows from a source that is--you got it, polluted! 
Our hearts are the spring, and our life is the water--we can tell if our spring (heart) is polluted or pure by the water (life) that flows from it. 

Now just one more thing before this post gets too long; How do we get our springs (hearts) clean and pure. First we have to remove the impurities, "remove everything that slows us down especially sin that distracts us." (Hebrews 12:1) That might be tv, movies, certain people, internet, facebook, anything that causes us to sin or even slows us down in our walk with Christ, we must get rid of. And as we're cleaning out all the impurities we me must fill in the empty space with things that make Jehovah smile, "Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable." (Philipians 4:8). This verse is a great checklist to go through and see if the things our lives are helping or hindering us Spiritually. If it doesn't hold up to this checklist then it probably needs to be kicked to the curb, and replaced with something that brings glory and honor to Him.