Guarding My Heart

Some of my brothers and sisters in Christ have this thing they do on Thursday nights (more like Friday at 1am) where they give out hot dogs and water, to usually inebriated (drunken-check out my vocab :p, jk)  students who are heading back from a bar close to our campus. They do this in hopes of eventually forming friendships with these students-many of whom become 'regulars'- and hopefully having the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Last semester, I helped out only a couple of times( I'm usually in bed by 10....talk about grandma). I remember being behind the grill and seeing an influx of college students arrive, hungry for hot dogs.  There were many guys, and usually a ton of girls, all dressed up for a fun night at the bar. About midway through serving hot dogs, I'd periodically hear a particular guy friend of mine yell frantically with his hands holding his head "GUARD YOUR HEART! GUARD YOUR HEART!" Lol. I couldn't help but want to smile/ laugh when he did this. I figured though, he was reminding his fellow brothers in Christ to be careful not to fall in lust, especially with the females that were coming to get their hot dogs.Made sense.


Throughout the rest of the semester and even into my winter break, the topic of "guarding my heart" kept coming up. A little obvious eh God? Well, it's not until recently that I realized that although I've heard the phrase so much, and had a general idea of what it meant, I didn't fully understand how to apply it to my life.
You see, I sometimes tend to be a girl of extremes. So hearing "guard your heart"  translated to "run away from any guy you like, and beat yourself up when you have a crush on a guy..that way your heart will be guarded". WRONG!

The phrase "guard your heart" is taken from the NIV version of Proverbs 4:23 that reads "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life".The KJV reads "Keep your heart with all diligence..."
The Hebrew word used here is natsar and is synonymous with words such as "preserve, guard, watch, keep". Notice that all these words are verbs- doing words. Sometimes it's so easy to fall in the mindset of "since I'm not in a relationship, and Im not doing anything bad, then my heart is already guarded" OR "Since I am in a Christian dating relationship, then my heart doesn't need to be guarded". Both those mindsets are incorrect.

First, although the verse is commonly used to refer to relationships, "guarding our hearts" is something that should be done constantly. What are we guarding it from exactly? The customs of this world. The way the media, friends, or even our own selfish nature will tell us we have to be. We are preserving our hearts from this world, for Christ.

So, after all my extremes, how did i resort to guarding my heart in regards to relationships? Let's just say i found freedom in a verse that I've heard and and quote a million times over. I always hear Php 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving make your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"
HOLD UP! WHAT? All these years of knowing this verse and I NEVER correlated it with Prov 4:23. Wow.

My new resolve? Do EXACTLY what the Word of God tells me to:

• I'm not going to be anxious..or in my case overly emotional. I LOOOVE getting deep with people and being vulnerable. Nothing wrong with that, but there's a time and place...and gender. It's one thing to be vulnerable with a girlfriend...and a whooole different story being vulnerable with a guy friend. Yuh Zeen? ( Jamaican phrase meaning 'you got me?')
• Praying with Thanksgiving-Jesus is my EVERYTHING! Pray and supplication. I've found such joy in being able to come to God and just being dead honest. "God, the truth I kinda have a crush on "insert name here" , but I don't want to be driven by my emotions.........Thank you so much for steadying my heart and preserving me"
• It's all done through Christ Jesus- EVERYTHING comes back to the Gospel- I've been given grace, shown mercy, and reconciled to God Himself, through the blood that He (Jesus) shed for me . It's for this very reason why His peace-and not my own-is able to guard my heart.

Other ways to guard out hearts include:Guarding out eyes, and ears. The things we watch and hear play a pretty big role in our perspectives. Lets key in to the leading of the Holy Spirit within us.

This isn't supposed to be a post about not being able to do this, or not being able to do that, but rather one to encourage and store up hope that as we allow the peace of God to guard our hearts, we'll be better able to go where He leads us.

I cant say I completely know everything about everything about guarding my heart yet, but I believe that this year will be one in which God definitely shows me how to, in the way that He wants me to.

                                                                                                                         Continually Waiting,
                                                                                                                                              Diana