Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else,  for it determines the course of your life.

Our hearts - the core of who we are as an individual is important to God because He longs to connect His heart to our hearts.  If we fail to guard our hearts then our connection with God will be damaged.  

So how do we guard our hearts? 

- Put good stuff into our hearts more then we allow our hearts to be filled with negative things - we need to pray, read the Bible, worship God, read positive things, listen to positive things, watch positive things.  Paul wrote - (Philippians 4:8) And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
- Legalism tells us we can't do this, watch this, listen to that because it is bad or immoral.  Guarding our hearts says I must not put more negative into my life than positive or I will be overcome by the evil around me.  My desire to guard my heart is greater then my desire to fill my life with worldly things. 
- The people we spend time with is also a key to this reality - we must guard our hearts from the negative people and or spend time with people who encourage us enough to overcome the negative of people we must spend time with that might drain our hearts. 
- Claim the name of Jesus and the power of Jesus over your heart, the negative forces that come against you and the obstacles that stand in the way of your God dream for your life.  If it is God's dream, He will empower you and so use His name to overcome the enemy.  You won't live God's dream by working harder or being better.  You will only accomplish God's best by trusting in His power and using His name against the enemy.  
- Add ways you have found to guard your heart!!!

Vacation

I had the opportunity to go back to the town I grew up in and see some friends that I attended church with as a kid/middle school student.  I moved from Idaho Falls in 1981 at the start of my sophomore year in high school.

I was reminded of the rich heritage of church and family I had growing up.  I was so blessed to have great friends at church.  We went on retreats and camps together.  We shared a lot of great memories of the past together even after 30 plus years had gone by for some of us to see each other.  Stories of my family came up in the conversations.  My family was a part of that church body for many years and that paid off in amazing ways for me.

I was reminded that often I am far too critical of the past.  My days at the Church of the Nazarene in Idaho Falls, ID where not perfect days.  There were conflicts.  There was a spiritual pride and legalism that was a part of the church in those days.  But I found I had a tendency to remember the bad instead of focusing on the good.  What an amazing thing that so many of us were willing and able to get together after so many years!!! Something had stuck in our hearts and in our lives that was still cherished even today.

I am truly a blessed man and God is good!