Committing Our Hearts to Our Lord
Written by Sarah Ann E.

 

Today is Valentine’s Day! You may be thinking, “Why do you have to remind me? I am having a hard enough time trying not to long to have a ‘special someone’ by my side today.” Well ladies, I feel the same way. This year, the closer Valentine’s Day approached, the more I longed to have a “special someone.” This has been a hard year for me. I have been trying to control my great longings for a husband, but it almost seems like they just grow bigger.

Why do we as ladies have such a great longing to have a husband? Well, believe it or not, that answer is very simple. In Genesis when the Lord punished Adam and Eve for eating of the forbidden fruit, the Lord said to Eve “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (3:16b).  We desire to have a husband because the Lord has put that desire in us. All girls are born with that desire. So, it is NOT wrong to desire a husband. But since we are single ladies, it is obvious that the Lord’s desire is for us not to have a husband right now. In the mean time, what are we to do? We must control that desire, so that we do not take matters into our own hands and get a guy outside the will of the Lord. We must commit our hearts into our Lord’s care. In doing that, we are saving ourselves for our future beloved husband.

We are going to be looking at three different ways to keep or watch over our heart. We have to put a strong guard over every inlet of sin. Proverbs 4:23-27 instructs us in four specific ways to keep our hearts—“Watch over your heart,” “Put away from you a deceitful mouth,” “Let your eyes look directly ahead,” “Watch the path of your feet.”

“Watch over your heart.” That is such a broad phrase. You are probably thinking, “Where do I start?” Charles Bridges says in his book The Commentary on Proverbs,  “The heart must first be known in order to be effectually kept. No thing is more difficult, while nothing is more necessary. If we know not our hearts, we know nothing to any purpose. Whatever else we know, to neglect this knowledge is to be a fool at the best. If we know not our weak points, Satan knows them well—“the sins that most easily beset us.” ” Can we say that we know our hearts? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). According to this verse, we cannot know our hearts. The Lord has to reveal the wickedness of our hearts to us. Many times when we sin, we brush it aside and totally forget that it is a sin. So, how can we know our hearts? We have to ask the Lord to reveal our heart to us and to help us cleanse any wicked way. In the last month and a half, the Lord has really been showing me the wickedness of my heart. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it is not fun to deal with. But if we desire to have a closer walk with our Lord, then we must deal with it. Now, how are we supposed to keep our hearts? Just like we cannot truly know our hearts without the Lord revealing it to us, we cannot keep our hearts without Him. We have to be willing to let the Lord keep our hearts. If we commit our heart into His keeping, He will do the work of “keeping our heart.” We have to be willing instruments in His hand for Him to be able to do the work. Do not think for one second that you can keep your heart without the Lord’s help. When you think that way, the devil will lead you blindly and swiftly into sin. All will be loss if we do not keep our hearts for our Lord.

“Put away from you a deceitful mouth.” Our mouth is an outlet of our heart. It will pour forth whatever is in our hearts. If our hearts are evil, then we will not speak with kind and loving words. But if our hearts are in the keeping of our Lord, then our mouth will spring forth words of love and kindness. What pours forth from your mouth? Are you constantly lashing out unkind words? If you are, then you need to get on your knees before the Lord and ask Him to make known all your heart to you. Whatever He reveals, you need to deal with and then leave your heart in the hands of your Lord.

“Let your eyes look directly ahead.” Our eyes are one of the most dangerous inlets to sin in our heart. Proverbs 4:25 commands us to keep our eyes straight ahead. “Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.” If we keep our eyes focused on our Lord, then we will not be wondering off the narrow road to a path of sin. Our Lord does not tempt us with sin. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust” (James 1:13-14). Sin is not on the righteous path. As the passage that we just looked at said, we lead ourselves into sin by following our own lusts or desires. Make sure that you are not letting your eyes wander and desire what the world is doing. Keep your eyes fixed on our Lord and be willing to be different and make a difference.

“Watch the path of your feet.” You know how important your feet are! If you have ever injured your foot and had to be on crutches, you know how much you really like to have two working feet! Our feet take us wherever we go. Our feet are important in the spiritual sense too. The devil sets traps along our way that will get us to desire to go his way. We have to watch our every step in our spiritual life. Our every little step needs to be taken with much prayer and with confidence that it is taken in the will of our Lord.

Believe me, there are many more ways that we can keep our heart for our Lord. We just took time here to deal with one passage, Proverbs 4:23-27. I know this is enough to convict me of ways that I have not been keeping my heart. I pray that you would humbly go before your Lord and ask Him to show you any ways that you are not letting Him have full control over your heart. I am praying for each one of you. Please pray for me too.

 

 

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