Live from the heart

“Guard your heart before all else, because that’s where your life is shaped.”
 
In biblical terminology the heart represents the center and source of a person’s entire inner life, the seat of the will and its decisions, of moral life (both virtues and vices) and the direction it takes, and the emotions with their consequences (BDAG). The heart is at the very center of the influences that shape a destiny. One could say, “My heart is who I am.” No wonder we are to guard it, and especially so since from The Garden it has a predilection to error.
      What we do and what we say is simply an expression of who we are. If I respond vocally to some personal assault, it is my tongue doing what my heart tells it to do. Should I take advantage of someone when the opportunity presents itself, I am doing only what my heart recommends. Everything centers in the heart, so how misguided it is to attempt to correct an injustice by setting guidelines on what the body is allowed to do. The mind, emotions, and will are carrying out a response coming from the heart. Solutions happen when we deal with the “heart” of the matter, not the results.
      So, it is reasonable to ask how we are to guard this heart, how to address the source of every difficulty. We might say, “My heart made me do it,” but that won’t work because the heart is precisely who we are. Our most effective counteractive method is to recognize our “prone to wander, Lord I feel it” nature and redirect our oversight to what it is that would lead us ultimately to our own total defeat. The crucial thing is that we understand who we are by nature, why we tend to say what we say, and how we are enabled by his Spirit to, as Solomon puts it, “guard our hearts.” I believe the first and most important step is that we genuinely surrender to God; that means living moment by moment in a personal and authentic relationship to Him. On one occasion I attended the little kirk near Balmoral, Scotland and at the close of the service stood facing the royal pew and sang “God save the Queen” in her presence. Enjoying God on a personal basis is like that unusual Scottish experience intensified beyond measure.