incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.” NRSV
“Keep your heart with all vigilance . . .”
There is a sense in scripture that the heart is the seat of the truth about who we are. We may sometimes behave as if we are someone or something else, but what is in our heart is who we truly are. The Lord Jesus said: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart . . ." (Matthew 15:18a NRSV). Paul taught: “But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart . . .” (Romans 6:17a NRSV).
There is a connection between our heart, our thoughts, and our behavior:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NRSV).
“For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts . . .” (Mark 7:21 JNT).
The point being that there is a point, prior to sin, where we can prevent ourselves from being enticed by temptation, where we can guard against the urge to disobey God’s Word. The proverb says to “keep your heart with all vigilance.” How do we do that? I think that the answer lies in a passage in Philippians:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:4-7 NRSV).
I think that Paul is describing a lifestyle here, one that is based upon peace. But this peace isn’t the absence of conflict. Rather it is presence of God. Peace, or “shalom,” is the idea that we are at peace with God and is based upon the fact that we are forgiven, that our sins have been atoned for:
From A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Romans:
“Paul understands ‘peace’ as being the direct result of ‘justification.’ Since justification is God's free gift of righteousness of man, even when he does not acknowledge, honor or give thanks to God, peace corresponds to righteousness in the sense of reconciliation. . . . The biblical ‘peace-offering’ was a general offering, not peculiar to the service of the Day of Atonement, but peace-offerings also importantly accompanied the people's renewal of the covenant. The purpose of all the sacrifices was to make atonement (lit. ‘to make peace’) between man and God. ‘Peace’ as ‘righteousness’ therefore relates to the reconciliation (at-one-ment)” (p. 179-180, Joseph Shulam and Hilary Cornu).
If we understand this, then, our peace comes from being right with God, and everything else flows from that. When we confess our sins and receive His forgiveness (1 John 1:9), we then are at peace with God because we have been reconciled to Him. Everything else in the Philippians passage flows from this: joy, gentleness, trust, prayer, thanksgiving. And it is these things which guard our hearts.
I think that, as contemporary believers, we have forgotten the power in confession. Our society is so focused on self-esteem. I’ve been in churches where old hymns of the faith have been discarded because they talk about humans in less than flattering terms:
Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?” (“At the Cross,” Watts & Hudson)
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!” (“Amazing Grace,” Newton)
I’ve known people who have changed John Newton’s words to “someone like me” rather than sing “wretch.”
“Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind—
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find—
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” (“Just As I Am,” Elliott & Bradbury)
And yet, if we are not these things—if we are not wretched and sinful and blind and needy—then why do we go to the Throne? Why do we need God’s grace and love and provision? The first step in receiving is to understand what we lack. The first step in forgiveness is to understand that we are sinners. Are we greatly valued and valuable? Yes! But not from anything with us, but only because of the love of the Father Who sent the Son to die for us. Our value comes not from within us, but from within Him! And we desperately need to be reconciled to God the Father through the blood of our Lord Jesus.
Proverbs tells us to guard our hearts. We begin guarding by understanding the process of peace, by understanding that it is only through confessing our sins that we are reconciled to Him, have peace with Him. The peace of God which guards our hearts is the peace appropriated through confession, through receiving forgiveness. Only then can we implement that other steps of being joyful, acting with gentleness, trusting God, praying constantly, being thankful. And then our hearts are guarded with vigilance.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
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