It’s about what you believe

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
-Proverbs 4:23

Most of us are aware of how important our hearts are. Some of us even monitor it when exercising or at certain times throughout the day. They always take your pulse and blood pressure at the doctor’s office, because the heart keeps the body going. Once the heart is gone, you’re gone too.

It’s rather appropriate that we use the word “heart” as a personification of our emotional center today. If your emotions are wounded enough, it often seems like you cannot go on at all. The ancient Hebrews used “heart” in a verse similar way, though they often identified your heart with your intellectual core rather than your emotional one. That’s a good analogy too, because we have all seen those who have ruined their lives over a wrong belief.

When Solomon tells us to keep our hearts, he is telling us to guard closely what we believe. He is telling us to make our beliefs a foremost concern, worthy of considerable time and effort.

And what’s really interesting is that he says that from these beliefs flow the springs of life.

God says he will judge the heart (Jeremiah 11:20). Frankly, if what is in my thoughts is exposed to God and He were to judge them, I can guarantee that there wouldn’t be any talk of springs of life. There would be a lot of talk about punishment. I don’t even deserve that life by my actions, and my thoughts are much worse.

And yours are too. Jesus says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). Yeah, this is pretty much the way of things. So what is this talk about springs of life?

It’s because our one shot of life doesn’t come from what we do, but on what we believe. Jesus Christ came to earth and lived a perfect life, even in the thoughts of His heart, and yet died a death He did not deserve. In that death He can pay for our sins, those things that should otherwise get us punishment.

This is not something we could earn, and so God asks us to repent and believe and in that we will have life.

Jesus comes in and cleans out the heart with His Blood. His Spirit indwells us then to guide us in righteousness and life. It’s not by our power at all that we can have eternal life, but by His.

Once we are His, the Holy Spirit will indwell us, and the Spirit will convict us, guide us, and teach us. Guard your heart, because this life coming forth is from God Himself. He is trying to guide you in the ways of righteousness. He is refining us to reflect more of Him.

Guard your heart. Watch carefully what you believe. Hold all of it against the Word of God. Your life depends on it.