Above all else guard your heart for it is the well-spring of life (Proverbs 4:23)

I recently heard a TV evangelist preach about the above verse and that, in our response to it, we should continually ensure that we put walls up between ourselves and the world, and not let what other people say and do offend or upset us. At first I didn’t get this message at all. I am used to the often promulgated Christian teaching that we should make ourselves vulnerable to other people’s pain and suffering and so be proactive in letting ourselves be affected by others. Consequently, I was initially worried that the preacher’s message, and that the metaphor of wall-building, seemed to be recommending we harden our hearts. However, as I continued listening it started to dawn on me that he was, in fact, recommending the opposite! Why? Because when we guard our hearts we are protecting Christ’s love in our lives so it is not tainted or restricted by ourselves being offended or upset. Therefore, by guarding our hearts we are dying to ourselves which allows us to live with an open and soft heart (this being nourished by the well-spring of life, as the verse in Proverbs put it), thereby extending God’s Kingdom (also see John 12:24-25). In short, if we guard our hearts, we can reach out to others better, with God’s love, and even if they try to offend or upset us.


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