Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:20-23

"My son, pay attention to what I say;
  listen closely to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
  keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
  and health to a man's whole body.
Above all else, guard your heart,
  for it is the wellspring of life."

I wasn't sure what Solomon really meant when he said "heart"...did he really mean the heart in our chest, or was he referring more to our thinking minds?  So I looked up the word heart in my Bible's dictionary/concordance.  It's defined as "organ that circulates the blood; the vital center of one's being, emotions, and sensibilities".  So I guess it's kind of both...

There were approximately 90 different Bible verses that have the word "heart" in them.  One that stands out most to me, in reference to why it's important to guard our heart above all else, is found in 1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart'." 

God judges us by our faith, character...and only He can truly see our hearts.  So when we seek to learn and understand God's wisdom, trust in His Word as it speaks to each of us in our own way, and we figure out how to apply it to our daily lives...then we can see what God will do with our obedience.