Proverbs 19:21, Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 4:23, Psalm 66:18-19, Psalm 51:10, Philippians 4:6-8



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A good and Godly life does not mean one without problems. Of course, life has it's ups and downs, Jesus is our Good Shepherd both in 'the valley of the shadow of death', and in the 'green pastures beside still waters'. Life will contain all these places and experiences, but our heart will determine how we make choices, act and react in our life's journey.

Guarding our heart - aligning it to God - keeping it pure before Him will determine a Godly course to our life. This has to be a good thing because God is love, light, and... well to be honest everything we strive for and plan for is what we receive from God Himself if only we would give Him our hearts.

Here is sound advice and some encouragement to us that we are not alone in working all this out...

Philippians 4:6-8 'Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise'.

This passage is telling us to bring everything to God - He wants to be involved in every part of our lives - when we bring things to Him in prayer He will give us His peace in every situation - and this peace will guard your heart and mind!

The final verse above also gives a key to guarding your heart, which is to watch the way you think - fix your thoughts on what is true, honourable, right, pure and so on, often we need to pray and ask God to help us with our thoughts!

Why are our thoughts so important?

The reason is that 'as a man thinks in his heart, so he is' - what we think about ourselves in our heart is who we really are. Maybe you have it together on the outside, but in your heart you believe you are so unwanted, unloved, alone and scared? Maybe you hold it together outside but are fearful of death, or fearful of what life will bring? Maybe it's pride that fills our heart, or it's anger that troubles us? All these things will affect the course of our lives.

To guard our heart will be to bring these fears and rejections, anger or pride up in prayer to God. Only He can bring change to us - we can't do it in our own strength, but it does take our willingness. We can pray as David did, 'create in me a clean heart'.

So take a moment now to guard your heart. Commit your plans to Him. Thank Him for all He has done for you. Ask Him to show you areas of your heart that you need to submit to Him. And may you experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand guarding your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.