WATCH OVER YOUR HEART

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23 AMP

Everything we do flows from our hearts. Another version of the bible says to be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life, yet another version says to guard it with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. The issues of life can be, trauma, resentment, bad break-ups, experiences and events that can leave many people unable to function and live a life of gratitude. An example that I would like to use is a healthy person, they can have normal bowel movements. Then a person who does not have normal bowel movements may eventually live in discomfort or pain and maybe live with sickness or disease as a result. Our past experiences if not properly dealt with can affect us similarly. The body has this special ability to act on our behalf with a fright or flight response. This is a physiological reaction to events, that triggers an acute stress response knowing or unknowing to you. When we are reminded of things that look remotely similar to something we may perceive as dangerous we will react. When we are guarding our hearts we are guarding ourselves against experiences that happened but may not be occurring in the situation you are faced with at the moment. When we have dealt with something traumatic, hurtful or painful we must not allow ourselves to remain there. The enemy uses these situations to step in with the possibility of oppressing and overtime possessing.

In the case of David and Goliath, the Israelites went to battle with the Philistine's who were large in stature and were champions. The Israelites were taunted by Goliath and they became afraid when he spoke. Why did they stand on the sidelines listening to their opponent in the first place? They did not guard their hearts. Later in the story, although David had been ridiculed by his brother or better yet verbally attacked because his brother was angry about David inquiring about the battle. Why did he get so angry? It only could've been the enemy to distract David. Shouldn't he have been so busy preparing for a battle that he did not have time to focus on his little brother asking questions? David did not let his brother's words hinder him, he guarded his heart. When David went to battle he was small, unprepared, nor was he even a soldier but defeated a champion. Fulfilling his God-given plan. Guard your heart with all diligence-to change destiny, to fulfill God's plans and fulfill your vision. God's plans sometimes look crazy and unattainable but we have to guard and protect our hearts from our thoughts, things that we do habitually, things we say or things people say to us. Culture opens us to many norms, we need to guard our hearts against conversations, from movies, from songs, from violence, from profanity. Guarding our hearts comes with much effort. Protecting yourself from conversations could mean not allowing people to use certain words in your space. In a teaching a few months ago on meditation, we discussed our vision and things to focus on when we are meditating. Things that can hinder the vision or the ability to hear from God can be things we have allowed into our space. If you think of space it can be your personal space like your "bubble", your space in your house, room, or where you go. Guard your heart, your space and your mind. "You will never be able to..." there are many children and students that can attest to having someone speak negatively into their lives. Some believed what had been said and it had a negative outcome but others refused to believe and it showed in their outcome. A few years ago I learnt from my daughter that there was a teacher that spoke negatively into her life and she had a hard time in school. It was as if she could not shake off the negativity. I could see something had been affecting her but I did not know what it was. As the parent, although it seemed hard and many times frustrating I continued to say words of affirmation, declare and pray for her as her authority. I was being her defence in a battle I was unaware of and she was unable to articulate at the time. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook-Proverbs 18:4 NKJV. Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones-Proverbs 16:24. We must protect and shield our hearts from harmful words as well as praying and covering our kids. 'There are no good men', this was a common declaration my enemy (my old self) would make while actively dating; 'another was 'all men cheat'. Who has been famous for saying these very strong and disparaging words like this? I continued to hang around people that were living a colourful life, unfaithful and did not have good integrity. I did not guard my heart. The scripture says to be careful what you think, but how do you stop thinking what you are already thinking? By focusing on something else. Philippians 4:8 says to focus on things that are pure, true, honest and of good report. If there are people that are around you that are living out that statement, it is best to hang around more positive examples. Ever noticed that when you focus on something hurtful it is as if it happened all over again, there was a physiological response that caused you to relive the pain. Forgive others of their wrongs and imperfections in the same way God will forgive us Matthew 6:14. When trying to justify why I could be upset when someone has stepped on my toes only showed me all the more how I needed to be understanding and loving toward them because I have my flaws. Guarding your heart may come with you realizing that you cannot be offended when someone does something when you may have done or are doing the same thing. Guarding your heart can mean forgiving people that have not asked for forgiveness. Guarding your heart may mean retreating to a place where you cannot be abused (sexually, verbally or emotionally). Guarding your heart may mean saying no. For instance, David guarded his heart against Saul who was his boss and authority over him by running away. He retreated to a safe place because he could see staying could cause his death, or cause him to be disrespectful, it could cause him to feel resentful and fearful. We must guard our hearts. Spiritually we can see that forgiveness frees us from pain, bitterness and anger. These spirits never visit on their own, they come with friends, not for a short-term visit but the intent is to kill, steal and destroy. Destroying families, marriage, relationships and friendships. These spirits can not only kill a person but kill their loved one's, using heaviness and unhappiness as a tool to lure them in. There is an attack, a battle and we must guard our hearts against the swine that came to steal our joy, peace, prosperity and vision. Similarly, relationships and visions are destroyed by the use of words, words that were sown into a person during a conversation. Words that possibly played over and over in a person's mind like Elijah. His entire ministry crumbled because Jezebel used words against him. The power is taken back when we declare God's promises. Declaring counteracts negative words that have been spoken. Proverbs say life or death is in the power of the tongue, God told Ezekiel to speak, God said...let there be and there was. Words are powerful and useful when used correctly. Notice words are not given to babies until they start to have more of an understanding of what needs to be said. James 3:3 reminds us of the use of our words by the example of horses being able to be controlled by bits and we can turn their whole body, but the tongue is a small part of the body and can spark a great fire. In guarding our heart we must guard against the things we say, to each other and ourselves. In conclusion, we must guard our hearts to heal from the past. From trauma, pain and all the events that have once hindered us from trusting and obeying God and His word. Guard our hearts against the things people may have once said to us about our vision. Guard against the storm that comes to hinder you from trusting. Guard from negative thoughts toward yourself. The battle is on to remain faithful and guarded, even when all hell has broken loose around you.

#itswarfaretime #findingchrist #healingfromtrauma #guardyourheart