Above All Else, Guard Your Heart

The choices you’ve made up to this point in your life have built your inward treasure, and what you are experiencing in your life is the consequence of what you have chosen to think and believe. You control what you think and believe. But after you make that choice, it controls you. So choose carefully! 

Jesus says in Matthew 12, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” 

Out of your heart, you will bring forth good things or evil things.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

What determines what you bring forth? Heredity, good luck, how you were raised or the environment in which you live? No, what determines what comes out of you is simply what is already in you i.e. what is in your heart…

• Your life is a manifestation of what is in your heart.
• Your marriage is a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning marriage.
• Your children are a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning children.
• Your finances are a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning finances.
• Your business or job is a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning work.

Whatever is stored in your heart is either good or bad treasure, and that is what you bring forth every day. Perhaps your stored treasure is partly good and partly bad. You may not have “evil” treasure inside you, but you may have mediocre treasure.

When you begin to renew your mind in alignment with the truths and principles from God’s Word, you quit dealing with the outward symptoms of failure in life and begin to change the kind of treasure that is within you.

It is the “treasure” that is inside you that produces change and
when you change the treasure, you will change what is brought forth.

We are the ground. Our heart is where we either allow the seed of the Word to have its complete rule, or we can let the Word be choked by the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things.

Our heart can become hardened towards God and not give His seed a place to germinate. Our heart can affect the growth, but it’s the seed – the Word of God – that brings forth fruit. All I am is ground. (Genesis 2:7) I’m just dirt – a place for the seed to germinate. I provide warmth and nutrients, but it’s the Word that produces the fruit.

Keep God’s words in the midst of your heart by attending to the Word, inclining your ear to the Word and letting the Word not depart from your eyes. Keep your spirit strong with the Word of God. Continually feed yourself with God’s Word in order to position yourself to prosper and be in health as your soul prospers.

 To Get Different Results, You Have to do Something Different

You won’t manifest much of the life of God if you’re plugged into the world through radio, TV, newspapers, and the internet. How can you expect different results when you read, watch, listen to, and think all the same things as your unbelieving neighbors? It takes a lot of effort—real effort—to keep your focus on the things of God and to guard the treasure of your heart.

Sure, you might be able to add a devotion and intellectually know that God wants you healed, prospered, and delivered from oppression. You may even have a desire for and a sensitivity to God that others don’t have.

But as far as results go, you won’t really experience any more of God’s miraculous power in your life as long as you continue thinking on the same carnal things that people in the world do pretty much all day long. To get different results, you have to do something different!

 King David said it this way, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”  Psalm 1:1-3

This scripture gives us insight into the benefits of controlling your thoughts and renewing our minds to the truths and principles from the Word of God.  Once again, we see the vital importance of keeping God’s words in the midst of your heart and what the positive outcome of doing so will be. 

Faith is not a mental process.  Believing in the heart comes from time spent in the Word of God. It takes more than just a mental decision (head knowledge) to cause your thought life and vocabulary to be in line with God’s Word.

It’s not external circumstances that controls your future; it’s what’s in you.
In fact, your future is in your heart.