Guard Your Heart

Guard Your Heart..It Determines the Course of Your Life Many people attempt to clean up their life without getting to the root issues. You may find yourself consistently mopping up sewer water in the basement of your house until you fix the leak in your sewer pipe. Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life (ESV). Another translation puts it this way, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life (NLT). In other words whatever is in your heart will spill out shaping your life and destiny. Contaminated Spinach In September of 2006 salad eaters became alarmed when a strain of bacteria in spinach began to sicken people. The Centers for Disease Control stated that the E.coli spinach outbreak infected 203 people in 26 states, caused 95 hospitalizations and one death. Authorities were intent on finding the source of the contamination. Ultimately the source was a farm in California where irrigation water was contaminated by wild pigs and cattle. Only when they found the source were they able to stop the contamination from spreading. I see many struggling people that have been contaminated by a serious poison called anger that has turned to bitterness. This bitterness affects their attitude, marriage, spiritual life, view of God, mental health, and even their finances. Scripture says, “...make sure that no root of bitterness shoots forth to cause troubles and many become contaminated by it” - Hebrews 12:15. Bitterness is described as a root. You cannot see a root because it is underground, but you see the effects of a root in the plant it produces above ground. Pollutant of Unresolved Anger Unresolved anger turns to slow simmering bitterness. A root of bitterness can contaminate your heart and everything that flows out of it. The writer of Proverbs warns us to “guard our heart above all else”. Guarding My Heart from Contamination How do I guard my heart from contamination? The Apostle Paul gives us a concise practical three-fold formula to keep our heart from being contaminated by poisonous anger that turns to bitterness. Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” 1. Don't let emotions turn into spiritual poison: In your anger do not sin.

Anger is an emotion - not a sin. Anger can turn from a neutral emotion to a dark sin if we let it take a negative shape. This is true when I am angry and I let my tongue spout mean spirited, critical words intended to wound. This becomes a reality when I am angry and allow my emotion to morph into vengeful actions. Instead, use the energy of anger to find a positive solution. Martin Luther the 15^th century reformer once wrote, “I find nothing that promotes work better than angry fervor. For when I wish to compose, write, pray and preach well, I must be angry. It refreshes my entire system, my mind is sharpened, and all unpleasant thoughts and depression fade away.” Luther had learned to put righteous anger to good use.

If you can’t find a good solution than walk away until you have cooled off. There is a fine line between feeling anger and sinning in our anger. 2. Don't keep unresolved issues in your life: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Practice the twenty-four-hour rule. Deal with your anger before the sun goes down. When you postpone dealing with your anger you allow it to turn into something even more devastating- bitterness and resentment. Bitterness is the result of unresolved relational anger. Bitterness is one of the deadliest spiritual poisons to affect a heart. John Ortberg writes, “Bitterness is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.” 3. Don't let emotions open the door to darkness: Do not give the devil a foothold Unresolved anger is a door opener for the enemy. When the enemy gets a foothold he will try to slip as much dark poison through that foothold as he can. Anger and lust are intimate cousins. Show me someone who struggles with unbridled anger and I will show you someone who battles with lust. Anger opens the door to lust, rebellion, depression, pride, and many other contaminating influences. What happens at the source will affect every part of the stream. What happens at the source of your heart will affect every part of your life. If my heart is clean I will flow in life giving energy. If my heart is contaminated than all that I do will be tainted with that contamination. Examine Your Heart If you have been struggling lately with your spiritual life, then it is time to take a close look at the condition of your heart. Have you allowed contamination at the core of your heart that is spilling into your life? It is time to allow the fresh clean stream of a pure heart to flow through your life.

I encourage you to find a quiet place alone with God and pray what David prayed in     Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting. Like the Centers for Disease Control and the spinach we must trace the source of contamination and clean it out.

When the Holy Spirit reveals any source of contamination you must be willing to confess it before God, repent of allowing it near your heart and take steps to remove the pollutant. Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.


May you experience again the joy and energy of life that flows from a clean heart before God.

Pastor Mark Jobe