Soil – Keep Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

We are the only ones who can “keep” our hearts. What does that mean? Your heart, or your kardia, the center of you, must be kept clean and ready for the seed of the Word of God. What are we doing when we keep our hearts? We are keeping the cares of this life out of our hearts. We are keeping worry out of our hearts. We are keeping sin out of our hearts. We are keeping unforgiveness out of our hearts. We are keeping our ground ready to produce the fruit of the Word of God.

When we keep our hearts, then the God-kind of life, or the zoe life of God, will come to us through the living Word of God that we have planted, watered, and maintained. You will live an abundant life in God when the Word of God has become first place in your heart.

Why the warning to keep our hearts with all diligence? Because the weeds get in there faster than you think. I remember when I was young, my mom and dad had a garden on our farm in Illinois. I was assigned the task of pulling the weeds (not my favorite thing in the world). I remember we went away on a camping trip for almost two weeks, and when I came home, my weedless garden was taken over with weeds. Two weeks! What!

I think it works the same way in our hearts. It is easier to maintain than to let go and keep starting over and over. You can start over, and the Lord will help you, but it is better to “keep” your heart free of weeds and debris from this world.