{"id":1217,"date":"2019-02-14T13:06:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T18:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.whitefire-publishing.com\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2020-02-20T08:11:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T13:11:52","slug":"guard-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/guard-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Guard Your Heart:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guard Your Heart:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

by Audrey Phillips Jose<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very poetical, but how practical? From this verse in Proverbs 4 (and three others keeping it in context), we have four pieces of advice for guarding our heart by being aware of: the presence of God in your life; what part purity plays; perseverance; and the power of prayer. What holds it together may surprise you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book, you will discover that it is possible to live these principles out, even under the most stressful circumstances. Looking at how David, Daniel, Elijah, and Joseph each guarded his heart, their lives will become surprisingly easy to relate to. These patriarchs come to life as real people, living real lives, with real problems\u2026just like yours.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sample<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

Part 1<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

PRESENCE<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Above all else, guard your heart, for it\nis the wellspring of life<\/em> <\/em>(Proverbs\n4:23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Living Translation puts it\nthis way: \u201cGuard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of\nyour life.\u201d Your heart is the essence of who you are. \u201cHere, King Solomon says\nit is the \u2018wellspring of life.\u2019 In other words, it is the source of everything\nelse in your life. Your heart overflows into thoughts, words, and actions.\u201d[i]<\/a>What is in your heart now is how you are and will be\u2014if the heart is\nright, so will your actions be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,\nand an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For\nthe mouth speaks what the heart is full of\u201d<\/em> (Luke 6:45).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Solomon was thinking of\nhis father, David, when he wrote those words in Proverbs, because David was a\nman who understood this principle and lived it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David understood that we best\nguard our heart by welcoming the presence of God into our lives. The world\ntoday would have us believe there is no God. There is luck, coincidence, karma\u2014maybe\neven a higher power or a \u201cbenevolent universe\u201d\u2014but there is no belief in a supernatural\npresence and intervention in our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God says otherwise: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nGod, who said, \u201cLet light shine out of darkness,\u201dmade his light\nshine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God\u2019s glory\ndisplayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to\nshow that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The treasure Paul is talking about\nis the presence of Christ in us. Clay jars are fashioned by someone. They can\nbe beautiful, functional, or both. However, clay jars crack; clay jars break.\nBut yet God, in His infinite wisdom, chooses to pour His treasure, His very\npresence and all which that signifies, into us\u2014people who crack under life\u2019s\nweight; people who are broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Welcomed the Presence of God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

David knew the secret of fueling\nhis heart with the presence of God. He became the great leader he was because\nhe intentionally saw God in every area of his life, both good and bad. He\nrecognized God\u2019s kindness to him; he acknowledged God\u2019s goodness; he\nexperienced His grace. David embraced His mercy and respected His sovereignty.\nDavid accepted, and even welcomed, God\u2019s personal involvement in his life, even\nbefore being anointed as a boy to be Israel\u2019s next king (1 Samuel 16:1-13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Samuel\narrived at David\u2019s father\u2019s house looking for God\u2019s next choice of king, seven\nbrothers were all paraded before him, yet none of these young men were chosen: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel saw Eliab and thought,\n\u201cSurely the Lord\u2019s<\/em>\nanointed stands here before the Lord<\/em>.\u201d <\/em>But the\nLord<\/em> said to Samuel, \u201cDo not consider his\nappearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The\nLord<\/em> does not look at the things people look at.\nPeople look at the outward appearance, but the Lord<\/em> looks at the heart\u201d <\/em>(1 Samuel 16:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God was looking for\u2014and\nfound\u2014someone whose heart was drawn to Him. Someone who cultivated a\nrelationship with Him of their own accord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presence of God permeated\nDavid\u2019s life, and it can permeate yours as well, because you are made of the\nsame clay David was. You have the very same treasure in you. You may not know\nyour own potential, but God does. A look at David\u2019s life shows how the presence\nof God impacts a life\u2014molding, shaping, and transforming every decision, every\nchoice, every action, and every attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David\u2019s life story has some\nwell-known incidents (killing Goliath with his slingshot and a stone, the\nseduction of Bathsheba), but there are literally dozens of mini dramas that are\nrecorded about his life. If you feel like you\u2019re having a bad day, a bad life,\nor a \u201cWhere is God now?\u201d season, read 1 and 2 Samuel. David had some seriously\nbad days! And although David led a truly bizarre life, he called it \u201cordered\nand secured.\u201d At the end of his life he said, \u201cTruly is not my house so with God? For He\nhas made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured\u201d(2 Samuel 23:5 NASB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not the words of a man\nwhose God is disconnected with his life. These are the words of a man who was\nthinking back over his life\u2014as a shepherd, as a member of a king\u2019s court, as a\nfugitive, a warrior, and a king\u2014and saw the presence of God everywhere and at\nall times. His life is a \u201cHow-To Guide\u201d for living in the presence of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Trained Himself to Reflect on God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the age of about fourteen,\nDavid had been anointed to be the next king of Israel, to replace King Saul,\nyet was then immediately sent back to the sheep, to carry on as before (1\nSamuel 16:1-13,18-19). Lest you think this rather picturesque, the life of a\nshepherd stinks\u2014literally! My husband and I live in Albania, and we come across\nshepherds from time to time as we\u2019re driving to out-of-the-way villages. What\nalways strikes me is their alone-ness. Also the fact that the only thing they\ncarry is their staff. (Where\u2019s all their stuff<\/em>?\nI\u2019ve never seen a shepherd whip a toiletries bag out of one of their deep\npockets!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the years he was the\nanointed king yet wasn\u2019t, David could have been impatient and frustrated at the\ndelay, even unsure about his calling, questioning God\u2019s direction for his life,\nmaking plans for getting out of there\u2014and maybe he was to some extent. Satan utilizes\nthese times to plant seeds of doubt that pollute the wellspring. But what\noverrode everything, and what guarded his heart, was his confidence that God\nwas in control, and God was not going to leave him in the wilderness forever. To\nguard your heart, this is an essential first step\u2014having confidence in the\ntruth that your God is in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we see is that David\nsubmitted to what was asked of him, and he carried on as before (watching\nsheep) yet with a sense of deeper purpose. He started writing; training himself\nto reflect and consider God, himself, where he fit in God\u2019s plans for Israel;\nlearning the power of trusting God for his personal safety on a daily basis;\nand waiting on God\u2019s timing for his future. He was searching for God\neverywhere, writing it down when he found Him, practicing the presence of God\nin the most humble parts of his boring life with the sheep. (Psalms 8, 18, 19,\n23, and 39 are good examples of this.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a calling that seems\nto be at a standstill? Are you barely containing your impatience and\nfrustration, wondering why God isn\u2019t moving faster? Or are you taking advantage\nof the time given you, to learn, grow, gain more experience, and get to know\nGod better, more intimately?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My life in Albania now is very\ndifferent from the nineteen years I spent in England. There, I was employed,\nproductive, active, involved; here it\u2019s harder because I\u2019m still learning the\nlanguage, which limits what I can do. Now in my 50s I seem to be starting over,\nand it\u2019s easy to feel like I\u2019m not \u201cdoing\u201d anything. But rather than stressing\nover not being \u201cproductive,\u201d I am learning to see this season as a time to\nexperience His presence in a deeper way and learning (rather slowly, I admit) to\nfollow David\u2019s example of training myself to reflect and consider God and where\nHe\u2019s working in my life, learning the power of trusting God, and waiting on\nGod\u2019s timing in fulfilling what He\u2019s called me to do here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My challenge is to become a woman\nwho intentionally sees God in every area of my life, unproductive as it may seem<\/em>, to recognize God\u2019s kindness and\ngoodness, to practice seeing<\/em> (and\nacknowledging) His personal involvement in my life. It is not at a standstill\nby any means from God\u2019s perspective.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[i]<\/a> Michael\nHyatt, \u201cThree Reasons Why You Must Guard Your Heart,\u201d Michael Hyatt<\/em>, accessed April\n22, 2014, http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/three-reasons-why-you-must-guard-your-heart.html#more-10227.\n<\/p>\n\n\n