KEEP THY HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE

This verse is appropriately at the heart of a section comprising Proverbs chapter 4 verses 20-27. The exhortations in the section cover comprehensively the devotion of all our powers to God.

The starting point is the ear, for wisdom begins with receptiveness to the wisdom given us from God. His words must guide; then our eyes will be occupied with worthy goals, keeping our life’s direction on a steady course. The centre of the exhortations concerns our heart. What enters by the ear and eye reaches the centre of our will, our intellect and our emotions, for this is the meaning of ‘heart’ in our Bible.

Only then does the exhortation move to the mouth, for ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh’, Matt. 12. 34. The eyes continue to need disciplined exercise before we reach instruction on the path of our feet, which will occupy us on another occasion.

Appropriately, as suggested above, the heart occupies the central position in all of this. Before they were born again, many can testify to having tried in vain to shed undesirable habits. They started with the external symptoms but failed for a time to address the underlying disorders of the heart.

As believers we may grieve when we recollect how our words in a moment of emotional turbulence have shocked ourselves. What we need is not a course of instruction in the use of acceptable language; it is an examination of our heart’s values and purposes. Perhaps we wonder why we have so much difficulty concentrating on spiritual subjects, though we can concentrate on matters of no importance. We need, not a course of instruction in focussed thinking, but a reviving of our heart’s spiritual health, through listening to healthy divine instruction.

Introspection, a constant taking of our spiritual temperature, will not answer our problem. The answer must come from our response to the Father who says to His own, ‘My son, give me thine heart’, Prov. 23. 26. He who wants our heart is asking for our all, ‘for out of it are the issues of life’. All external actions spring from our heart’s condition. Keeping our heart, its reaction to the Lord, is the secret of spiritual health.