Message from August 10, 2025

“Guard Your Heart”     (Complement the “Guard Your Mind” sermon of July 13)

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

Colossians 3:1-2, 12-17:  “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ……  “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs wth gratitude in your hearts to God.  Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of he Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Ezekiel 36:26 :  God speaking to his people:  “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;  I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

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There are hundreds of biblical references to the “heart”.  And there are scores of adjectives applied to the heart:  Troubled/Praying/Obstinate/Loving-Inclined to evil/Sincere/Searching/Rejoicing/Fearing/Wise andDiscerning/Devoted/Sad/Sorrowful/Pounding/Anguished/Broken/Perverse/UprightDeluded/Renewed/Praising

This meditation will explore:  What is the heart as referred to in the Bible?  How does it influence us from day to day and why is it important to guard our hearts?  How do we guard our hearts?

1.  What is the “heart”?

Being made in the image of God, we are endowed with heart and mind as well as spirit.  Precise definitions are difficult and complex but intuitively we can resonate with the notion that our “heart” represents a deep and obscure part of us that relates to our emotions, motivations, strength of will and also relates to our conscience.

So, we say when insulted, “You have hurt me deeply”.  When seeing a need, we may say, “My heart goes out to that person”.  Or, when faced with a challenge, we might say, “I don’t have the heart to do that or go there.”  Or, if we have done something wrong, we may say, “My heart troubles me”.  If we see someone who has no feelings of compassion, we would say, “That person is heartless”.

The emotions generated by the heart can translate into physical effects:  psychosomatic illness, palpitations, sweating and so on.  A severe manifestation might be depression or ulcers.

The heart is the invisible, the almost impossible-to-grasp part of us that adds colour, music, feedback, motivation to our minds.   The heart can be functional or dysfunctional.  It can be energetic or lethargic.  It can be tamed or it can become unruly.  Our hearts, are essentially the dynamic core within us

2.  How Does the Heart Influence Us?

a.  The heart works with the mind to supplement what the mind may not do so well.  One example:  You hear about someone who has suffered loss of health or financially.  The mind might say, “Well, that’s life, isn’t it?  Too bad for Charlie”.  But if the heart gets involved, then a totally different type of response is generated:  compassion.  “Mind, aren’t you going to do something about Charlie?  Have a heart!”  And then, action may ensue to help Charlie.

b.  The heart provides the colour to our lives.  Our emotions range from Calmness (green), Anger (red), Fear (orange), Cheer (yellow), Depression (black).  These few categories do oversimplify but we can all identify with such experiences.

c.  Our hearts strengthen and energize the will and enhance perseverance, determination and initiative.  We are motivated to work, set goals, persevere through difficulty and long hours.

d.  The heart can, at times, go into overdrive and commandeer / overrule the mind.  The best example is falling “head over heels” in love with someone or something.  The heart may decide to take over and keep rational thought out of the picture.  A biblical example might be the life of Samson, who loved without discretion and it cost dearly!  In our modern world of scams and conspiracies, our hearts, if not careful, can be commandeered to fear or succumb to predators.  Fears, anxieties, irrational behaviour and emotional collapse can overwhelm our ability to function normally and wisely.

Why guard our heart?  If we do not guard our hearts, we disable the healthy contribution that our heart makes to our overall well-being.  Just as a bad lifestyle and bad diet can impair our physical hearts, the same goes for our spiritual “hearts”.

3.  How to Guard our Hearts?

Jesus and his disciples were a the seashore after Peter and others caught a huge number of fish:  John 21:15  “When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these”?

The questions that Jesus asked people were always probing and cut to the core of the matter   His questions always brought forth a consideration of what is most important. There were other times when Jesus was asked a question and in his reply, he was able to drill down to the most fundamental and important idea.  In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus was posed a dicey question:

“Now when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him:  “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.  All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’”

Have you ever noticed that the ten commandments (Exodus 20 / Deuteronomy 5) do not include the command to love. The first two:  1. You shall have no other gods ahead of me; and 2.  You shall not make yourself any idols….and so on.

And yet, there is a very key item in Jesus’ answer:  LOVE.   How is it then that Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind?”  and then, Jesus throws in a bonus answer, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”?  Jesus almost ignores the content of the commandments but focuses on the object of our loves!

Flipping back to the seashore with Jesus and Peter, and other disciples, Jesus actually asks Peter a similar question in three purposeful variations:

            1.  Do you love me more than these (PRIORITIES)

            2.  Do you truly love me?  (GENUINENESS)

            3.  Do you love Me?  ( WORTHY OBJECT OF OUR LOVE)

The greatest safeguard to our hearts is threefold: 

We must determine what or who we love most!  We need to examineif our love is true or genuine.  And, we need to honestly evaluate if the object of our love is truly God himself above all other loves.

Jesus, in his perfect wisdom, summarized the commandments powerfully but simply, by pointing out the reality that If we love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, and with all our strength….. all the commandments  are going to be fulfilled.

On the other hand…..

In marriage, if our greatest love is ourselves, the marriage will fail.

At work, if our greatest love is the money, we may be tempted to cheat in integrity or work.

How we live, if our greatest love is comfort, we will pamper ourselves and forget the needy.

In sports pursuits, if our greatest love is success, we may sacrifice times of devotion to God to hours of training.

1 John 2:15-17  cautions us what not to love:  a rather sobering injunction…..

“Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

But, if the greatest object of our love is Jesus, our heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, then we will discover a stability and permanence in our life experience that is nurtured daily by our close walk with God.

The quality of our lives is only as great as our highest affection.  If your highest affection is your self-centred self, you will not be able to be of much use to other people.  Not only that, you will end up hurting others.

When it comes to the heart, if we want to safeguard our hearts and remain pure, healthy and uncorrupted, the starting point is: “Love Jesus, totally, and only Him” … “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and strength.”

Then, when our hearts are seduced with temptations or people who would like to take advantage of us or exploit us, or to accept second best, our focus on and love of, Jesus, will hold us fast.

Just a final word.  We all have failed in heart and mind and will yet do so.  There are times when we feel self-condemnation and that God cannot forgive us.  There may be habits of the heart and mind that have trapped us.  1 John 3:19,  “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:  If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

Jesus invites us in Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Jesus knows more about our hearts than all the psychiatrists ins the world.  He invites us to come to him for healing and renewal. 

Oswald Chambers wrote, “We can know the attributes of God in other ways but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ.”  Why?  Because the redemption of our hearts, souls and minds all happened at the Cross of Christ.  Let us draw near!

In 1 Peter 3:15 we read, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”

By Loving God, we cultivate within ourselves the mind of God and the heart of Christ.  Do you Love him?  Have you made God your greatest love and closest friend?

That is how to guard our hearts!  And, that is how we guard our minds as well!

Yearn for the Mind of Christ and yearn for the Heart of Christ!

Pray right now for this!

John K