“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

— Proverbs 4:23

Have you had a heart exam recently? I don’t mean the kind in which a doctor listens to the physical health of your heart through a stethoscope. I mean an examination in which the Holy Spirit determines the spiritual state of your heart.

The Bible always addresses sources of things, and as shown in Proverbs 4:23, Scripture recognizes that people are more frequently moved by their emotions than by their intellect. Our emotions influence our intellect more than our intellect affects our emotions. We do base our faith on rational thought, but faith is not without emotion or passion. Indeed, the very heart of our faith is the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Why do we need to understand the relationship between the heart and the head? Because Jesus said that out of the heart proceeds all manner of evil: adultery, murder, theft, and so on. Out of the heart “springs the issues of life.” Therefore, we need to watch our hearts very carefully.

What kinds of “heart disease” do we need to watch for? The heart can become inflamed by passion and lust, so we need to watch its “temperature” and not allow such things to start. Unfortunately, the temperature of the heart often reaches high degrees quickly, and if left unchecked, all sorts of immorality can break forth. The Bible clearly communicates that Christians must check evil at the very first impulse. No one can imprison us for our thoughts, but our unchecked thoughts may very well land us in Hell because evil thoughts testify to an evil heart.

The Scripture says that we need to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. To do that we need to set a guard, a watchman, over our hearts in the same way the Bible tells us that we should place a guard at the door of our lips to watch what we say.

Do you have a guard over your heart? If you don’t, invite the Holy Spirit to take that post today, examining your heart regularly to keep you in tiptop spiritual condition.

“Private victories precede public victories.”
Stephen Covey