◄ What Does Proverbs 4:23 Mean? ►

Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

Proverbs 4:23(HCSB)

Verse of the Day

There is an intensity and urgency in this earnest pleading to guard your heart about all else, and in Scripture, the heart is the seat of the thoughts, the will, the conscience, and the emotions. The heart is the storehouse for wisdom and all that influences the life and character of an individual, and Jesus reminds us that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with every part of our inner being. We have been endowed with reason and choices, with emotions and a will, which is bound up in our hearts - and we have been given them by God to glorify Him and to enrich our lives.

But they should never be given free rein to rule our lives and dictate our decisions for unguarded feelings can fluctuate, unguarded emotions can twist and turn on a whim, unguarded thoughts can toss to and fro like the waves of the sea, and an unguarded will can lead you away from the path of peace.

These days, the world's cry is to let your heart lead you into whatever your heart desires. But the heart is more deceitful than anything else, and unless checked and guarded above all things, will influence our lives for evil and not for good. Yes, we are to guard our hearts as the highest priority, guarded above all else.

We are not left to guess at the reason for the intensity and urgency in this earnest plea to guard your heart above all else, for the heart is the source and well-spring of life, the heart is the repository for life - the treasury for truth - the warehouse of wisdom.

Christ is our life, our truth, and our wisdom, and the Lord searches the heart and tests the mind. We are to guard the gospel truth that has been shed into our hearts - the knowledge of Him Who has brought us out of darkness into His glorious light and Who has taken us from the doors of death and breathed into us the breath of the new-life in Christ.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, I want to guard my heart above all things. Search my heart and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me. Lord, I know that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. May I not follow my own heart, but always be guided into the path of righteousness by You. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.