by Dani Catherine

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

Within the storms of life that may cause me to be open to the enemy, Proverbs 4:23 is one of my favorite verses. What does it even mean to “guard your heart” and how do we guard it?

The heart represents our center; our heart takes in emotions, our deepest desires, and passions. If biblically, we are reminded to guard our hearts, then it’s quite possible that at times our heart goes unguarded, which means we are open to attack from the enemy.  To guard, means to protect against danger. I can remember a few times where my heart went unguarded. I was letting society speak truth into my life rather than the word of God. I was surrounded by the wicked ways of the world, which left my heart open to all forms of temptations, sin and hurt. I was under attack by the enemy because I wasn’t guarding my heart.

So, how do we guard our hearts? We have to dig into God’s word and remain attentive (verses 20-22) and become disciplined about what we say, what we think and our actions (verses 24-27). God tells us to keep our mouth free from what is untrue. And in Matthew 12:34, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” it reminds us that eventually, whatever is in the heart, will come out. We are called to fill our hearts with thoughts that are pure, loving and honest. We are then told to keep our eyes looking forward and not get distracted by the things to our right and to our left. To me, this means to fixate my eyes on the number one goal; to glorify God with my life rather than glorifying the world. In the times that my heart went unguarded, I was all about glorifying the world.

Lastly, God calls us to consider where our feet carry us, because whatever sin our mind is contemplating, we will speak about it, and once we speak about it, we will begin to look for it. And when we begin to look for it, we will be compelled to fulfill that desire and start running towards sin and temptation. We must turn our feet to the cross, not the ways of the world. Speaking from experience, it leads to self-destruction, guilt and shame. But God wants us to be joyful and covered by love.

When I first experienced Christ and the gospel, my heart changed. Once my heart changed, I continued to pray about the protection of my heart and continued to seek His word. I pray that you are also on guard to protect your heart, for you deserve a life filled with God’s love and blessings.

Dani Catherine loves to bake, paint, snap photos and spend time with her loved ones. Dani enjoys leading a table at Beautiful Monday nights and loves to volunteer as much as she can at Grace Family Church.