"Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)
Over the past few months, I've been learning to strengthen my faith and focus on God while in the 'waiting room’. One consistent prayer request has been asking the Lord to "guard my heart" - a phrase I had learned from a good friend of mine when she first began dating her now-husband. This prayer I have adopted of late is to temper any feelings I might have that can unwittingly cloud my judgment and discernment about God's will for my life. I recently came across a quote which prompted me to further study this topic: "As much as our culture is currently concerned with how we feel about various things, Scripture is more concerned with...HOW our feelings should be governed by what we know to be the TRUTH about GOD” (emphasis added). Western culture has ingrained in us a narcissistic concept of feelings. How does that make you feel, is the infamous question posed by highly-educated psychiatrists and psychotherapists. What does your heart tell you, is the catch-phrase used by our friends. But as true believer, our feelings should hardly be inwardly focused, as the world would have it. Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to "keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." The Hebrew translation of heart is “leb”, which is also used figuratively for feelings. Interchanging these two becomes more interesting when perusing Mark 11:15-17. Here we find Jesus becoming angry at the profiters taking advantage of the temple of God to do business, in overt irreverence to His holiness. Although many different meanings and analyses can be taken from this passage, consider this anger to actually reflect a passionate and protective attitude towards the things of God. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) Notice that parallelism between the temple and believers. We ARE the temples! And as such, Christ is passionate and protective of US. Ferociously protective of the inhabitants of OUR hearts! Armed with this knowledge, we see, then, that our "feelings" - that tiny little cupid bow that exists inside our hearts - is entirely more relevant to our relationship with GOD than anything else. The temple was always understood as holy and pure ground in the Old Testament; insomuch that priests would fall on their faces as God powerfully filled the building. Likewise, believers should hold a similar sense of sanctity. We should be so filled - our temples so overwhelmed with the Spirit of God - that anything juxtaposing that is less than godly and will simply not survive. Feelings for a godless man or woman cannot, therefore, reside in us. This is what we mean by asking God to guard our hearts - our feelings, our temple, in possession of Him. In this manner, our feelings will always be ultimately governed by God. As we study his Word to overfill our spiritual temples, our attention gets diverted to the proper avenue. Then when the right man or woman comes along, our ‘carnal’ feelings and God's ‘feelings' (His Temple) will co-inhabit. Lord, I pray you will guard our hearts. Let our vessels be so filled with Your presence that anything not of You cannot possibly coexist. Drive out those buying and selling - those who seek to take advantage of us. Overturn the tables of those selling beautiful lies from our ‘leb’. Amen. --C, Guest Writer |
Today's Verse
“Behold you are beautiful my love, behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves” Song of Solomon 1:15 ESV Quotations"A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin." Archives
January 2023
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