“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, NKJV)
Author, Vance Havner is known for one of my favorite quotes, as told to me by Kim Newlen, founder of Sweet Monday Ministry, “What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.” The Proverb leading into this writing is King Solomon’s eloquent way of saying essentially the same thing. I have no extensive understanding of the human anatomy, but when Solomon writes about the “heart,” or Havner references “the bucket,” I am confident the focus is not about physical matter in either instance.
The words we say and our actions, both in private and in community, reveal exactly what I believe Solomon and Havner are referencing. Life has a way of challenging our very best intentions. To “Keep your heart with all diligence,” suggests the heart tends to stray away from staying the course. The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, expresses the same belief by writing, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (17:9, NIV). A faulty physical heart will alert a person by sending warning signals; shortness of breath and or chest pain as a sign that attention is needed. Our Creator God gave His Word on how one can know for certain if the spiritual heart needs attention. When personal relationships begin to deteriorate, when stress levels rise and peace is absent from our lives, then perhaps God is trying to let us know it is time to seek help.
From the writer of the Book of Hebrews: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (4:12, NKJV).
For the best functioning of the physical heart, seek a physician. For the best functioning of the spiritual heart, seek the Great Physician by the reading and doing of His Word. Do not wait for a heart crisis before getting help. Stay in God’s Word and you will never be caught off-guard.
For deeper understanding, read Proverbs 4.