Guard your heart

Post date: Apr 6, 2017 8:50:33 AM

By Mary Ann G. Balajo

Having successful marriage, good jobs, wonderful family, loving children, faithful wife/husband are all product of guarding one’s own heart.

As early as childhood years, parents must inculcate in their children’s minds the different virtues to live by. The virtues of honesty, respect, humility, obedience, gentleness, kindness, tolerance, hard work, dedication, simplicity and love make a person stand out wherever he goes and whatever he does. His life will forever be blessed. Psalms 1:3 states, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” This is what a person reaps when his life is fully showered with virtues and the word of the Lord serves as his shield. He can never go wrong no matter what the circumstances that come his way. His life will never be shaken no matter how strong the storm is in his life. In everything he does, he simply succeeds and shines.

In God’s measuring rod, our worth is measured not by the attainments we’ve reached nor by our good looks, fame and wealth but the good Lord weighs our value by how we live our lives to please Him and be of service to His vineyard. This is His commission to all of us. He commits His taintless name to be our guarantee in everything we do. His name that is above every name, that by His name, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

Proverbs 4:23 states, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” How do we guard our heart? By not letting it be polluted with life’s deadly poisons as gossip, stealing, slander, hypocrisy, greed, murder, adultery, lying, pride, envy, jealousy, anger, wrath, hatred, dissension, disobedience and all sorts of poisons. Once we understand God’s perfect plan for us can we truly grasp His heart since He wants us to live our lives worthy of service to His holy name. if our God is holy, we ought to be holy since we are His children and as His offspring, we must possess the same qualities that our father possesses. We cannot possibly live apart from Him because in Him we move and have our being. In order for a person to truly live a successful kind of life, he must anchor it in God’s standard since it is the only perfect standard for which we base our lives from. He holds perfect criteria in living a life worthy of His approval and salute.

So whatever God has entrusted in us, we must take care of His trust and His good name for it is the only gauge that tells us whether we’ve passed or failed in life’s test. Only God can assess our lives.