1 Peter 5:8-9
"Stay alert! Watch out for your great Enemy, the Devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of Believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are."
Proverbs 4:23
"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."
[NLT Version unless otherwise noted. Emphasis added.]
As we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, fear God and be Holy Spirit led, we must simultaneously be aware of the context in which we exist as Believers. In the above passage the Apostle Peter is encouraging the Believers to hold on, by reminding them that they are not alone in their persecution [even that which extends beyond the physical]. As he seeks to prepare and equip them, he also exhorts them to look to their brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who have successfully withstood the same persecution and have continued spreading the Good News of the Gospel. Like them, the context in which we modern day Christians live is a broken, sin cursed world, whose ruler is our Enemy the Devil; the father of lies and the accuser of the brethren to name a few of his monikers. And while I am loathe to devote attention to him, God would not have us as Christians be caught unawares by the Devil’s schemes. As soldiers in the army of the Lord, yes, we are given protective armor, yes we are covered by the Blood of Jesus and yes we are protected by the Holy Spirit and legions of assigned angels, but we also have a part to play. A critical first step in standing firm against the Devil and being strong in our faith is submitting to God so we can then guard our hearts and in doing so align our life to God's Will and not the world's.
Because the heart is such a vital organ, both in the natural and in the Spiritual, it is crucial that we don't leave it vulnerable. The tricky part is that many things feed it, so that means there are multiple areas/doorways that are to be guarded. We cannot successfully do this in our own flesh. We can only successfully guard our heart by partnering with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Doing so helps us filter what we do, see, say, listen to and frequent through the Truth of His Word. This is the Biblical worldview we discussed as being the lenses through which we should view and operate in the world. The end goal is to not allow Satan access and entry to the doorways that affect our heart. What is the core? Wait for it....relationship, relationship, relationship with God!!!
Masterpieces, the Devil would love nothing more than for us to be casual and negligent about guarding our hearts. And if you didn't know; in life, not making a decision is a decision in and of itself. Christians have already made the first and best decision by accepting Christ, now comes the daily walk of righteousness that includes intentionality [right thinking] in following Jesus. Now to be clear, being alert to the Enemy and guarding our hearts does not mean we walk around in fear jumping at every shadow or being paranoid and suspicious of every person, place or thing. What it does mean is a having a clear minded and resolute focus on the Truth of God’s Word as our armor against Satan’s lies. Spoiler alert! Satan wants us cowering, ignorant and weak. I am here to stand with you and say, “Not today, Devil! Not Today!”
English defines "guard" as "To protect from danger, especially by watchful attention or a barrier. The similar Hebrew word for "guard" שָׁמַר [pronounced shaw*mar] goes a step further by interchangeably using "To keep" in order to "provide security by setting a watchman over". Simply put, not letting anything get past that is misaligned to Jesus. As Holy Spirit filled new creations in Christ we are under no obligation to be slaves to our flesh and can boldly stand guard over our hearts --> souls---> lives. Making a decision to submit our will to God’s Will is the first requirement of a gatekeeper. Guarding is being both on offense and on defense to deflect and anticipate Satan’s attacks on our heart. Think about the Royal Guard outside of London's Kensington Palace. It is a well oiled and precise machine with one focus, one rule and one mandate; submit to and protect the queen/king by guarding the palace gates. We don’t need to make guarding our heart complex and overly deep but we do need to make it practical. For example, if the heart is composed of our mind, our emotions and our will, in essence, our soul, then we need to protect the gates surrounding those things.
Eyes Gate - Guarding what we watch.
Ears Gate - Guarding what we listen to.
Mouth Gate - Speaking wisely, not foolishly. Bridling [controlling] our tongue to speak life, not death.
Mind Gate - Guarding our mind and its’ thoughts. Taking every thought captive to the mind of Christ.
Body Gate - Guarding where we go, what we do and who we do it with.
Spirit Gate - Guarding who/what we align ourself with, let speak into our life and/or our spirit.
Doing these things is not a legalistic checklist of condemnation, but a posture of submission to God to do as His Word says: be free in Christ to do what is good and pleasing to Him and good and beneficial for us. We've talked about leaning into pauses/checks on our spirits to await counsel from the Holy Spirit. His pauses of conviction to our spirits are a way of escape from temptation and possible sin. A major function of the Holy Spirit is pointing to Jesus. Pointing to Jesus can look like pointing out what is not like Jesus. So those gate checks? They are alerts when something or someone is amiss be it internal or external and the opportunity to correct it. The Devil will most assuredly wiggle through any cranny/nook/crevice/crack we leave unguarded. Fearing God rather than people looks like pleasing God rather than people. Godly choices as we guard our hearts will sometimes be unpopular with people and the world, and we must be ok with that.
As I always say, Father God doesn’t play about His babies! Remember, He is going to protect His children by reminding them who and Whose they are. He is not a regimented legalistic God, but He is a personal God and He is a Holy God. So, as a Believer, when I think about guarding the gates to my heart, I am not operating in condemnation from the Devil’s lies, I am operating in the conviction of the Holy Spirit as the righteous saint of God that I am. Even though the Devil has Christians in his arrow's crosshairs, we need not fear. If God is for us, who can be against us and succeed? This is not a rhetorical question. The answer is NO ONE!
Takeaways for you to remember:
#1 DO BE: Alert, aware, accurate and prayerful.
#2 DO NOT BE: Preoccupied with the Devil; paranoid, fearful and jumping at every corner; suspicious of people; condemning yourself or others.
#3 Guarding your heart is a submitted partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Yours in Christ!
Dr. Quahana
Want to enjoy some of the Scriptures inspiring this entry?
References
1. “Guard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guard. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.
2. NAS Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries. The Lockman Foundation. 1998.
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