Proverbs 4:23-25 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Today's episode talks about the importance of guarding our thoughts. It talks about the ways the enemy wants to take control of our thoughts. It talks about the effect our thoughts have on our emotions. We can be in control of them if we watch our words and if we keep our eyes on Jesus. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Guard Your Heart and Mind
Proverbs 4:23-25 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.”
I really like these verses. I don’t think we realize how important it is to do what they say. Did you know it was important to guard your heart and mind? Did you know when it talks about the heart in the Bible, it also talks about your mind? I just found this out the other day, although it does make sense to me. Our hearts and minds are interconnected. Our thoughts are actually what control our emotions. This is why it is so important to control our thoughts. I know a lot of people who feel they can not help how they feel. Perhaps you agree. I mean, when something happens, you just react. You can not help that. You instinctively feel a certain emotion depending on your past life experiences. However, we won’t all feel the same thing. For instance, you and I could be out for a walk together. We might see a dog walking on the other side of the street. You might be happy because you think dogs are cute and you love them. I might be nervous because I was attacked by a dog when I was younger, so they make me nervous.
This can happen with many emotions. My husband gets pretty angry when people cut him off or when we are stuck in traffic. However, most of the time, I don’t really mind either of those two things. So, let me go back to what I said earlier. I agree that when something happens, you may not have control over whatever emotion you immediately feel. However, you can do work so that you have more and more control over how you react to things. Even though you might not have control over the immediate emotion you feel, you do have control over whether or not you stay in that emotion. Your thoughts drive your emotions. We all have stories that we tell ourselves when something happens, and those stories can help us or hurt us. Too often, we allow them to hurt us.
For example, someone shows up late to a lunch that you had. They didn’t call and you are sitting there getting more and more mad. You are probably telling yourself a story like this, “I can’t believe they are late. They are always late. They are so selfish. They only think about themselves. They think there time is so much more important than my time. I can’t believe they are doing this to me. I can’t believe they don’t care about me or my time. Maybe I just shouldn’t have lunch with them anymore.” Do you feel the emotions that come along with this story? You are getting yourself more and more upset as you sit there telling yourself all these negative things. Take a minute and think about the emotions that story had you feeling. Now listen to this story you could tell yourself, “I wonder why they are late. I hope they are ok. This happens sometimes. They get caught up in something and lose track of time. I am sure they will be here soon. They have been late before, but they always come. I know how hard it can be getting out the door with 3 kids.” Did this story create different feelings? For me, I felt more compassionate when I told myself the second story. I was able to be more patient.
The reason we have to guard our thoughts is because the enemy is actively trying to take control of them. He wants you to have negative thoughts. He wants you to think you have no control over your thoughts or your emotions. He wants to destroy us, and that is the fastest way to do so. He can plant seeds in your thoughts and then walk away and watch those seeds ruin us. In John 8:44, Jesus says, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” The devil is the father of lies. Unfortunately, he doesn’t just straight-up lie; there is usually a kernel of truth in what he is saying, and yet he twists that truth to make you start doubting.
For instance, you called someone, and they didn’t call you back. The enemy will use this information to cause you to doubt your friendship. He will tell you that this person was home, and they just didn’t want to answer. He will tell you that they are mad at you, and that is why they didn’t answer. It all depends on what your insecurities are. However, the truth is, we don’t know why they didn’t call us back, and we won’t know until they do call us back. This is what I mean by guarding our thoughts. We need to shut the enemy down. It may be true that they didn’t want to talk to us, but until they tell us that, we have no way of knowing. So, wouldn’t it be better to tell ourselves a story that is just as plausible but that doesn’t make us upset? For instance, they are busy right now and can’t answer the phone. They are out running errands and will call back when they get home. These are also just as likely as the negative stories, and yet they don’t make me feel angry, hurt, or sad. I don’t feel the rejection the enemy wants me to feel when I tell myself a positive story.
The verse above says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” We must guard our hearts and minds because all else flows through it. I told you that your emotions are a result of your thoughts, and I showed you why that is true. This is why we need to guard them. We need to focus on retraining our minds to not listen to the enemy. The negative stuff is so much easier to believe than the positive stuff. However, it is possible to believe the positive stuff too. It just takes more effort, and we need to be more intentional about it.
If we keep reading this verse, it gives us some ways that we can guard our hearts and minds. The very next line says, "Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.” There is a quote I really like from Lao Tzu that says, “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” The enemy is sneaky. He starts with our thoughts because he knows they are the key to so many other things. We are lucky, though, because we are sons and daughters of the one true king, and so we don't have to let the enemy have control of us. Jesus died on the cross to break that control, and all we need to do is stand in that freedom and take authority over our thoughts.
If we watch our words and what comes out of our mouths, then it will be easier to be the person we want to be. If we are always saying negative or mean things about ourselves or others, then our thoughts will be negative as well. The last line is the one that can probably help us the most. It says, “ Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” To me, this means to fix our eyes on Jesus. Don’t look all around you at what others are doing. Look straight ahead. Kind of like when you are running a race, and they tell you to look at the finish line. Don’t worry about what the other runners are doing. Just look at your finish line. What is our finish line? It is eternal life with our heavenly Father. If that is what we want if that is our end goal, then we need to keep our eyes fixed on that goal, and we need to guard our hearts, our minds, and our words.
We can do this. The enemy thinks we are easy targets, but he doesn’t know the authority we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. We can just say that name, and the enemy flees. We don’t have to believe the lies. We can choose to believe the truth that we are children of God and that God loves us. We can choose to ignore the lies and tell ourselves better stories. If you would like to learn more about how important our thoughts are, you can join the mentoring session tonight; just email me or reach out on social media for the Zoom link. Also, you could go back and listen to episode #438, Our Thoughts Become Who We Are.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode. Lord, we need your help. The enemy is having a grand old time messing with our thoughts. We need your help to guard them. We need you to show us how to protect them. Show us how to guard our hearts and minds, Lord. Help us keep our eyes fixed on you. We love you! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing those of you who are in mentoring this evening at 8 PM EST. If you are not in mentoring yet but would like to give it a try, you can head to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com, to sign up or to get more information. If you would like to check it out before signing up, email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com, and I will send you the Zoom link for tonight’s session. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I have made you fearless. The devil would have you full of fear. I have made you fearless. You are fearless because you live in me, and I am fearless. I am the Lord.”