Keep your heart

Proverbs 4:23 – Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

It’s such a common phrase: “I gave my heart to him, I love him.” It’s such a common idea that when you love someone you give your heart to them.

This little verse says you should keep your heart and diligently, at that. You should not be giving your heart away. Except of course, to God, And even that only once you are in a relationship with Him. (We will do a study on this).

So what is so important about your heart that you should not give it away?

I actually don’t know and will have to study this.

What I can say, is this: keep your head and keep your heart. I think that if you give it away, you are giving control of your life away. You are giving away your soul. You should be in control of yourself at all times, which is why you shouldn’t get drunk. When you don’t have control, the devil has a door to enter.

When you give your heart away, you are giving someone else control over your life. You are opening a door for the devil, because you are not in control. Will the person to whom you are giving your heart, guard it as fiercely as you would? We would like to believe so, but the truth is, unfortunately, no.

Words are powerful, and whether or not you believe in the terms, there are certain terms used in the Bible to describe certain things and we should stick to those. Even if we say “I give you my heart” and mean “I love you with all my heart” , you are not saying what you mean, and what you are saying is something completely different to what you are meaning. The devil knows the difference.

From what I understand, you keep your heart. You don’t give it to anyone. God will take your old heart and give you a new one, with your permission of course. But you give Him permission to take your heart, you are not even giving it. Not from what the Bible describes. God will give you a new heart. And, then, you keep that one, too. You guard it, you protect it. You don’t give it to anyone.

But, like I said, this is something very new. A very different angle from what I grew up with. I will need to do a study on this.

GUARD YOUR HEART – KEEP YOUR HEART. Your life depends on it.

Anger and sin

Ephesians 4:26-27 – Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.

We are taught from a very young age that anger is evil, you shouldn’t get angry, or be angry. Yet, of all the emotions, anger is the one God probably felt most often.

We are also taught that any emotion should be ignored, we should not live in our emotions, we should think and not feel. This is a half-truth. Your emotions shouldn’t rule you – you can be angry, but you shouldn’t sin because of it. Your emotions are God-given gauges of what is going on around you, within you.

But because emotions can be used by devil – most of the names of the demons are those of emotions! – we should be careful in how we deal with our emotions. Like with everything in God’s kingdom, balance is key. You cannot ignore you emotions flat-out and you cannot let them rule you either.

So how do we deal with emotions?

The steps below will help you to deal with your emotions. But, it is going to take time and effort. The more you do it, the easier it becomes and the quicker you find the answers. However, it is a life-long journey, as our emotions are very intricate and have histories and layers that formed since you were in your mother’s womb.

1. You need to recognize the emotion.
   • What are you feeling: hurt, anger, shame, resentment, etc.
2. You need to know what caused the feeling
   • What happened to make you feel this way? What words/events triggered this emotion
3. You need to understand why you are feeling what you are feeling
   • Why did his/her words make you feel humiliated? Why are you angry at the person cutting in front of you?
4. And then you keep asking “why?” until you find the root. How will you know when you find it? You’ll know. It is something that just clicks, a sudden peace in the storm, a quiet knowing. Sometimes you get to it quickly, other times, it takes months or years.
5. When you get to the root, you need to pray about it. Whether you need to forgive someone, or yourself, whether you need to repent of a sin, whatever the case may be – you need to pray about it and give it to God and act as He leads you.

These are hard questions and they require honesty. If you can’t be honest with yourself, there’s no point in doing this exercise. There will also be no victory over your emotions and they will govern you.

V27 says that we should not GIVE place to the devil. The devil does not – CAN NOT – take what you do not give him. It is a very scary thought. In the universe that God created with the free will being an integral part in it, the same rules apply to the devil that applies to God. If you have to choose God out of your free will and He, the Creator of the Universe, cannot force you into a decision, neither can the devil.

Whatever hold the devil has over you, you have given to him. And, by the blood of Jesus and the mercy of God, through true repentance, you can take it back.

When you do not understand your emotions and you allow your emotions to rule you, you are giving place to the devil. He will amplify your emotions to levels that will make you seem and feel crazy. That is not the purpose of emotions.

Once you understand your emotions and you are practiced in identifying them and their causes, your ability to deal with the world and all the curveballs it throws at you, improves dramatically. You don’t have to spin out at every thing that breaks or doesn’t work out. You don’t have to become so angry you can’t control your words or fists when someone says something to you that you don’t like. You don’t have to break down in desperate tears of intense humiliation every time someone points out a mistake you made.

Managing your emotions bring perspective.

And with God’s grace, a godly perspective brings peace.