Proverbs 4.23
“Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Your heart is a vessel, and it is designed to be filled. It will not be empty; something will occupy it. The question is: what will fill your heart? The choice belongs to you. Proverbs instructs us to be wise about what we allow to fill our heart. We are told to guard our heart.
The two primary mechanisms for protecting your heart are discernment and discipline. Discernment means that you do not let anything into your heart that has not earned the right to be there. Every idea, image, thought, belief, value, and activity that seeks entry into your life must prove itself to be true, necessary, and helpful. Before accepting and believing something, it is essential that you press pause, evaluate, and test.
This is especially important for the attractive and ‘feel good’ things that want access to your life. Attractiveness and pleasure should not be the determining factors. It’s a fundamental principle in God’s kingdom: Not everything that feels good is good for you, and not everything that is good for you feels good.
Rather than carefully carefully choosing their values and guiding principles, foolish people simply absorb the beliefs and behaviors of the culture or society around them. Their reference point for embracing something is: Does it look good? Does it feel good? Is it popular?
This is a recipe for personal and cultural disaster, and Paul warned against it in the book of Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Discernment requires knowledge of the word of God. We must know the standards and principles of the kingdom of God in order to evaluate the truthfulness and quality of the many ideas, truth claims, and activities that are constantly promoted in our world.
Discernment also requires wisdom, which is seeing beyond the popularity, hype, and spin to understand the real truth of the situation. This is the purpose for the book of Proverbs, an entire book of the Bible that is fully dedicated to the pursuit of discernment and wisdom. Wisdom and insight are a critical part of evaluating and testing any of the ideas or practices being promoted in today’s world.
However, having discernment isn’t enough. We must also have discipline. Discipline is the commitment and courage to act in accordance with discernment. It is the willingness to do what needs to be done, even when you don’t feel like it.
Discernment sees with clarity.
Discipline acts with courage.
You must fight to protect your heart from the distractions and deceptions of the world. Do not be casual and careless about the ideas, thoughts, and beliefs you allow into your life. Be vigilant in exercising discernment and discipline.
