Keeping the Heart

Keep your heart with all diligence,

For out of it spring the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23

The world is enamored with the idea of self-help.  Book after book is written to help with this addiction, that pain, to bring success in this area of life or to improve ones ability in one arena or another.  Yet the word of God speaks clearly.  The external actions and behaviors are mere results of the state of the heart.  Jesus put this same concept clearly in Mark 7:20-23: “And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”  The central concern for every believer must be the spiritual state.  From that place come the patterns of the mouth (Prov. 4:24), the eyes (4:25), and the feet (4:26).  With our spiritual gaze fixed upon Christ Jesus the external choices practically make themselves as we submit ourselves to the true Physician of our souls.