Issues of the HEART

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

I’ve read this scripture several times and heard it preached and paraphrased in conversations that often encompass being hurt in some way, usually when discussing relationships. While dating we hear this used to expressed the dangers of allowing the wrong person access to such a fragile space.

I’m learning how much more this scripture truly addresses. When I read it, I sense such an urgency to get in a defensive posture when it comes to the heart, that I feel needs our attention. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it is more than the place of emotions. It is life, like the Garden of Eden, it is where everything that will sustain us lives. In the human body the heart is the muscle at the center of our circulatory system. It pumps blood around the entire body which carries oxygen and nutrients to all parts of your body, while carrying away unwanted waste.

Our spiritual heart, consisting of the mind, will, and emotions is at the center of our very being. When we fail to guard our heart we give way to the many things that can cause destruction to our garden. If we’re not careful we will walk away from what’s most important to seek something we perceive as greater. In this search we often lose ourselves and begin to pattern or mimic those around us. We see this in the world every day.

I want something different to flow from me. I want my heart to pour from a healthy place not from a space filled with hurt. So I must guard it like my life depends on it…because it does. How I live, with whom I live, and what I decide to do with my life, flows from my heart. My life is a reflection of this most sacred part of me. I encourage a reflective journey through your heart and becoming keenly aware of what’s flowing out of it, because, healing happens from the inside out.

So start digging….