Above All Else

Daily Reading: Genesis 35, Psalm 35, Mark 7, Proverbs 4

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else.

Throughout Proverbs 4 today, we read many nuggets of wisdom, but at the end we get to Proverbs 4:23. We can strive to do everything else, but if we don’t guard our hearts, everything else can be in vain. If we don’t guard our hearts it can all unravel pretty quickly.

Above all else.

Jesus had a similar message for his followers in Mark 7 today.

“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Mark 7:21-23

It can be incredibly hard to guard our hearts in the world today. There is a constant onslaught of stimulus from all directions. Our society is always fighting for a foothold in our hearts and minds, telling us what we should view as most important, and striving to attach our identities to anything other than our relationship with God.

Our hearts long for acceptance.

Long for status.

Long for achievement.

Long for material comfort, financial security, and the list goes on.

God wants our hearts fixed on him.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

What is fighting for your heart recently?

What is holding your mind captive?

It doesn’t have to be “sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly”. It could be a simple fear you have yet to give over to God. Anxiety over a situation you are dealing with in your life. Anger towards someone that has hurt you.

All of these things are intensely human, and extremely normal.

However, if unchecked, they can eventually take over. The posture of our heart can begin to be dominated by them.

Over and over again in my life, I have found it is virtually impossible to simply tell yourself to stop thinking about something. We have to instead replace it with something else. We have to give our brains a new target.

Philippians 4:8 tells us: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

There is true power in putting this into action.

If you are struggling to guard your heart in a certain area of life currently, what would putting this into action look like for you?

I would encourage you to get out a fresh sheet of paper and start listing off things in your life that are excellent or praiseworthy. Write down areas of your life where God has shown up for you in the past. Take some quiet time, away from any device or distraction, to think through these things. Throw on some worship music and let the lyrics actually sink in.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

It is worth the fight!

Daily Reflection & Dialogue

What daily rhythms would allow you to “guard your heart” when the world is pulling you in other directions?