Chronicles of a Teenage Christian

10. Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 - 'Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it'

For weeks on end I saw this scripture above everywhere, it was like God was telling me to do it before it was too late, like He knew I would slip back just days later. He was right... I failed to guard my heart, I thought I was good on my own but my spirit was weak and my flesh was willing so I fell short of the glory of the Lord. Now I see why it's so important to guard my heart, now I know that all it takes it one moment for you to be caught slipping and for temptation to overcome you... My heart is so heavy right now because I'm disappointed in myself, I was going so strong for Jesus but I fell back again. But in a way I'm glad it happened because it taught me a huge lesson.

Now you may be wondering what does she mean guard your heart? When I say guard your heart I mean protect yourself from anything that could lead you into sin no matter how small it is.

Let me put this into a relatable situation. Say there's this guy you've been in a relationship with, a man who you felt like you loved but God told you to cut him off because he's not good for you, you cut ties with him now and you're hurt because you miss him. Hey we're all human, I've never been in a relationship but I can imagine losing someone you really love, that hurt and thinking back on the memories you shared... yeah it sounds painful.

So put yourself in the shoes of this person... it wouldn't be smart to go and start listening to 'my boo by Usher and Alicia keys' or 'all my life by Kci and Jojo'. You shouldn't really listen to anything that will lead you to thinking about love when you're trying to get away from one. Avoid romantic movies like the notebook or love and basketball... come on, that will probably lead to a phone call you'll regret. That favourite couple that you followed on tumblr or instagram, unfollow them. Those wedding pages you follow, unfollow them too.

I'm not saying you can't watch, listen to or follow love related things but in certain situations we need to learn how to guard our hearts and separate ourselves from them during our healing process. You may think it won't hurt to listen to that one song but before you know it you're crying again and you're secretly longing to be back in that relationship the Lord told you quit.

I don't think we realise how much rubbish goes on inside of us, in our spirits. Things plant seeds in our hearts and just one situation can trigger that seed to germinate, grow and bear fruit. Okay let me put this into perspective. Say you are someone who is trying to give up their use of profane language as part of your walk with God. The seed could be something like hanging with friends who swear every second or listening to music with a lot of profanity. You may not swear at that moment but that seed has been planted and all it takes is a situation like you being provoked by somebody for it to just come out. Don't worry, everyone falls short of the glory of God and you can easily ask God for forgiveness however if you continue to surround yourself around situations that continually plant seeds in your heart then it becomes easier and easier to slip on your walk with God.

Since my personal issues are things like lust, I had to stop listening to sexual songs... yes that includes Trey Songz, R.Kelly, Chris Brown and others (Trust me this isn't easy but I have to do it). I have to shut my eyes during sex scenes on the TV, unfollow people who post sexual content on social media etc. It's hard but it has to be done for my own good. Lust is easier to deal with now that I'm single but when I get in a relationship it'll become 10x harder for me to fight against it and not let it lead into fornication (sex before marriage). So my goal is to overcome it as much as I can before it gets to that stage.

Now I know we can't guard our hearts from everything, in the world we live in, sex, drugs, profanity and everything else not of God is glorified but that's where your relationship with God comes in, He's there to help and He will always give us a way out of temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) all we have to do is ask and obey Him.

So how do we guard our hearts?

I've already touched on it so far, simply blocking out the things we can. However there's another side to guarding our hearts, there's a more spiritual side to it.

Ephesians 6:12 tells us "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

A lot of the things we go through are spiritual so we need to feed our spirits and make sure our spirits are always filled with the presence of Jesus so that we can overcome these spiritual forces. In my last post I talk about how we get delivered of evil spirits when we give our lives to Christ and how they will try and get back into you. Like I said, we need to get our daily filling of living water to fight against this. Keep reading your Word (daily), remain steadfast in prayer (daily), just allow Jesus in every aspect of your life!

Romans 13:14 says "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."

It's difficult trying to get in the habit of including God in every aspect of your life, sometimes He will tell you to do things you don't want to do but he truly knows best. I'm going to speak about something God recently made me do in a few posts but for now this was is what is on my heart to share.

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Why don't you try researching and studying scriptures on guarding your heart and the importance of it?

So sorry for the over delayed post, all I can say is life happened. Quite a bit has gone on between me and God which I'll share in the posts to come. Thanks for reading x

God Bless x