Proverbs 4:23

The Hebrews chose a part of the body—the heart—to represent the source of what a person is and what he does. It was a very natural selection because our life is in our blood. The issues of life are in the heart. And the heart is what pumps the blood. Therefore, the heart is the wellspring of our life. If the heart is injured, or the heart stops, life stops.

By the same token, they chose that muscle to represent the center—the source—of what a person is. The heart is a collective term for a person's emotions, attitudes, reasoning, and intellect. Today we use the word "mind," but they used the word "heart." And so, it is the seat of a person's character. Indeed, the heart is the seat of one's whole personality.

We find that when we go to battle against it, according to Jeremiah 17:9, our heart is filled with deceit, falsehood we might say; duplicity, meaning it is double-minded. It is ambivalent. One day on this side, the next day on that side. And it is also very contradictory, because that heart, not only being a seat of evil, is also a seat of things that are good. Man is a mixture. And it all comes out of that heart. So, what a person does is generated by the heart.

Proverbs 4:23-27

Now flip a few pages over to Proverbs 4, verse 23. Set boundaries for your desires. Do not pursue everything you notice. Focus straight ahead. Keep your eyes on the goal and avoid getting sidetracked by distractions and detours that lead to temptation. The antidote, therefore, is to guard one's inner heart and mind. Here we are going to read verses 23 through 27.

So this instruction for righteousness involves the parts of the body that are involved in expression or action. First, the heart, that is, the mind, must be guarded diligently because it is the wellspring of life. The heart is at the center of life's activities; it guides a person's path.

Temptations can only be resisted and conquered if we take the right course of action. Temptation is an invitation to sin, offering the promise of a greater benefit through disobedience. Our minds should be conditioned to promote obedience and goodness.

Proverbs 4:20-24

We are told here to keep God's words in the midst of our heart, to not let them ever depart. And the only way that happens is if we are constantly pouring in God's words, each and every day. Not just reading them, by the way, but actually giving them attention as we evaluate our heart against God's holy standard.

We are told to keep and guard our heart with all our might. Let that sink in. We are told to keep—guard—our heart with all our might and effort, for out of it spring the issues of life.

The heart is described here as the fountainhead—hold on to that—from whence all streams of life proceed. Just as a polluted upstream water source flows downstream to infect all other waters, so too our heart must be guarded to ensure it is pure and aligned to God's standard, His holy, meek, and lowly heart.

Proverbs 4:23

You see, Satan is working continually to capture us, to get in the gate and to corrupt us by attacking our senses to get into our heart, and he will use every tool he has to break through our will and break our relationship with God. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 says,

Here, again, we have that word keep, and also it means, again, to protect and to watch over your heart with diligence.