GUARD YOUR HEART

Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

Fort Knox is located close to Louisville, Kentucky and is home to much of the nations gold reserve. This reserve is protected in a very special way. Our nations gold reserve is housed in a two story building constructed of granite, steel, and concrete. It is 105 ft by 121 ft, and is 42 ft above ground level. Within this building is a two level steel and concrete vault that is divided into compartments. The vault door weighs more than 20 tons. No one person is entrusted with the combination. Various members of the staff must dial separate combinations known only to them. The vault casing is constructed of steel plates, steel I-beams and steel cylinders laced with hoop bands, and encased in concrete. The outer wall of the depository is constructed of granite lined with concrete. Construction materials used on the building included 16,500 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel and 670 tons of structural steel. At each corner of the structure on the outside, but connected with it, are four guard boxes. Sentry boxes, similar to the guard boxes at the corners of the depository, are located at the entrance gate. A driveway encircles the building and a steel fence marks the boundaries of the site.

The building is equipped with the latest and most modern protective devices. The nearby Army Post provides additional protection. The depository is equipped with its own emergency power plant, water system and other facilities. In the basement is a pistol range for use by the guards.

There is another place which needs to be well guarded. We need to make certain of its security because it is the most important place in the world. That place is our heart. Why is the heart so important? Why does it need to be guarded with such diligence?

The word heart is found 963 times in the Bible. Of these usages the heart can mean the mind, the emotions, the will, or the inner man. It can even refer to the person as a whole.

The heart is of important because the Lord considers the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

The heart is important because life is conceived in the heart. Think of the heart as being the womb from which all of our actions, attitudes, ambitions and articulations are conceived. When Solomon encourages us to keep our hearts....he is saying "above all things that you keep.....keep your heart because life springs from it. The word "Keep" is elsewhere translated preserve, observe, watchers, watchmen, and even besieged.

We should always be taking an inventory of the things in our heart. The condition of the human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked according to the prophet Jeremiah. Only God can change, and cleanse the human heart. Man in not only incapable of changing it, he is even incapable of knowing it.

What we do is a product of the heart. What we say is evident of what lies within the heart. The heart is a precious place. We must guard our heart with diligence, and allow Jesus to be Lord of our heart. If he is Lord in our heart, he will be Lord of our lives.