One aspect of guarding your heart is having an awareness of what’s going on inside. Often, we can see what’s coming at us, but we fail to see how we are processing life internally and dishing it back out. Self-awareness in our culture is called emotional intelligence or EQ. It’s the ability to know yourself and how you relate to others. It’s an awareness of how you come across. Do you realize how you come across? Ask someone close to you, “How do others view me?” (Husbands, I dare you to ask your wife.) Some people are said to have low EQ, like the father who criticizes his kids for being on electronics way too much while he can’t even […]
Heart
4 posts
Proverbs 4:23 gives us this instruction: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (NIV). To guard and keep your heart means to protect what comes in and goes out. You have to constantly be on guard and keep your heart with all vigilance because it’s the command center for all your words, actions, and desires. John Flavel, an old Puritan pastor, used the example of guarding your heart like a besieged garrison with enemies on the outside and treacherous citizens on the inside. The imagery is dated, but the idea is good, so let me run with it in a modern equivalent. Before I was a follower of Christ, I had an unguarded and […]
For the past twenty plus years I have been a pastor. For the past twenty plus years I have been in and out of counseling. Counselors love me because I’m the classic blame shifter who is easy to spot. “What brings you in today?” My wife has issues. “Why do you think you struggle with anxiety?” Because my seven kids are driving me crazy. “Why are you so filled with fear and anger?” Because my congregation keeps picking on me. It’s like I’m still a child in a grown man’s body. The problem is still out there and not inside of me. When will I learn? Deep inside my regenerated heart, something is still off. Conversion doesn’t eliminate the battle […]
More often than not, if we are honest, most of our time is spent in the direction of self rather than the direction of others. And, if we are really honest, most of our days are spent pampering ourselves rather than serving others. Something is seriously out of whack. The Heart is the Problem The heart is mentioned over 900 times in the Bible and 77 times alone in the book of Proverbs. Often when the Bible talks about your heart, it refers to the core of who you are. It’s your thoughts, motives, emotions, personality, and the spiritual part of your makeup. Your heart is basically who you are. One of the more well-known verses on the heart is […]