Proverbs 4:23 “keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”
Having great friends and hanging out with them is surely one of life’s great pleasures. At the age of fifteen, I made friends with a family of a boy that I worked beside. I sort of became adopted into the family, sleeping over and being around their house more time than anywhere else. We both worked in a Wimpy Bar and long before the concept of BFFE we were for several years inseparable, even starting a band together. (Oh the memories!)
On weekends we would often hang out all day together.
I remember one summer Saturday morning, the sun was out, and we were all up fairly early and at my friend’s house, there was a group of around five of us. Where they lived was on the outskirts of the city, in a new development of “council housing” which in Australia is sometimes called commission housing. There was a lot of dreadful things that happened and in the poverty and mess of life, there was a lot of drug and alcohol abuse.
This day though stands out in my memory as a day when we guarded our hearts.
We all put on our oldest clothes and trainers and headed out to walk to the edge of the new housing area, where it changed into countryside and farmland.
We found a small river and we all jumped in off a low hanging old bridge, up to our knees and waists in fresh cool water.
The sun was shining through the riverbank trees, everything looked so clean and fresh, we were transported from a concrete jungle to adventures in the Congo.
We walked upstream together in the river, five abreast, loving the camaraderie of shared Saturday adventures. The river gleamed in the tree filtered sunshine, bringing waves of joy with its whorls of cool.
We came to a space on the bank where we could climb out, and there was a massive tree overhanging the river. I can’t remember how we did this but we somehow found an old rope and set up a Tarzan swing going out over the river.
We played together there for hours until the sun was past its peak, and the shadows were changing shape and length.
I think for all of us there was a tinge of sadness about the end of such a glorious day. We set off back to the bridge and then across building sites to the made-up streets and back to the family home.
We made hot chips, on bread and bread rolls smeared with cold butter and laden with tomato ketchup. The hot chips melted the butter as we wolfed them down.
With our favourite music blaring we sat upstairs in the bedrooms and laughed and talked till the last one of us fell asleep.
KNOWLEDGE
What we allow to enter into our heart and what we allow to exit out of our heart will define us. We have a father who is calling to us with all he has, warning us with all passion and compassion that this aspect of our life is central to our experience of life.
How and what we enter into and exit out of in life is a key indicator of the condition of our heart, reflects our heart, the inner man defines the outer man. Private victory always precedes public victory.
As we humble ourselves and submit our whole life willingly to God we gain a watchtower of full-time guards that never sleep and are constantly vigilant around our secret places, our inner person, and our lips, tongue and mouth. Holy Spirit thank you!
If we are interested at all in revival then this is a key to that experience. Will we allow unethical or immoral thoughts access to our inner life, or will we choose grace and forgiveness in every situation? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to be our guide moment by moment over what we allow access to our inner person, will we allow Jesus to fully flourish in our hearts, with no rooms there marked as off-limits to him and his ways.
Listen to yourself for a day – what is emerging from you – where is that coming from – is there a call here for repentance, change, and humility – knowing that without the help of a loving fatherly God this is an impossible exercise that will consistently defeat us.
Revival will start with you, with your heart, with you inviting Holy Spirit unconditionally to guard your heart, and life will flow like a beautiful clear mountain spring from there to others.
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word for “vigilance” in Hebrew is pronounced “mismar” and this word appears 22 times in the Old Testament. It is translated in the ESV into the English words, custody; watch; guard; and, vigilance. I love the concept of having your own heart taken into Holy Spirit custody.
WISDOM: what gets into your heart each day that helps or hinders?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Achiever and Focus as a Theme Dynamic knows exactly the right thing to do, and how to make sure first things stay as first things.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [fortify, protect and preserve the secret places of your inner person that controls the flow to your lips, tongue and mouth, even if it means going without sleep, surrender your whole life to God and his life will flow through you – oh what an adventure!]
Proverbs 4:23 “keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”
Thanks pastor Allan.
When God’s promises and word gets into my heart it gives me strength and helps me to expect great things for the future.
I would purposely reflect on all the great things God has done in the past for me- things that went well and not so well( according to me) But I know it is all His doing. So reflecting on the way He has guided me or brought people around me always helps me not to panic and look forward to the future.
What you allow in and out of your heart is the essence of revival. Wow, that being said: it makes alot of sense. It seems obvious, but in the literal sense it needs to be intentional. For me, today’s message is to guard my heart from allowing things in that can contaminate it. To let things out of my heart that are not healthy. It’s what identifies who I am. I like that. Thanks Pastor Allan.
Amen! Thank you Ps. Allan for sharing. The LORD bless you 🙏
So true ; Revival starts with me, with my heart and me guarding it, for out of it flow the springs of life.
What I allow to enter into my heart and what I allow to exit my heart will define me .
How and what we enter and exit out of in life is the key indicator of the condition of our heart.
The inner man defines the outer man . Private victory always precedes public victory – so profound !
Let’s learn to keep our heart with all diligence . For out of it spring the issues of life.
Hi ps Allan ; thx u for God words ; I stop in one word custody our heart; learning in our faith we found wisdom and pray hard God will helping to me look after or custody my heart.
Thx u
God bless
Thanks Pastor Allan again for your wonderful way of presenting God’s Word to us. Loving the journey!!
How important it is to be vigilant about what we allow into our hearts! It is very personal verse because it speaks about our ears eyes mouth & lips for what we dwell on when we hear & see if we don’t filter it in accordance with God’s Word will ultimately get into our heart & will be verbalized through our mouth & lips. I see it as a warning about the necessity to have self control which comes by diligently controlling our passions. I love the concept about taking our hearts into the custody of Christ because it will determine the condition of our life. It can mean the difference of us choosing to speak demeaning words or uplifting words to others & to our self. Our heart is far more important than our experience skills & knowledge & we need to do a regular daily check up!
Allan such a great word !!! I really appreciated your words around knowledge – All of it ! Amen
And custody of our heart ! How important to guard of heart and to think of it as ‘custody of’ our heart to accept responsibility to take care of our heart and protect, hold back from the evil of this world and keep captive for its betterment . It can be as simple as choosing to turn off the tv to certain if not all shows these days huh! But to meditate on music and words that bring life to us and closer to our beloved Heavenly Father !
Your challenge to listen to yourself for a day ! Absolutely a good idea to assess the condition of our hearts Amen (What issues of life spring from my heart today ?
So much to learn in this study today thank you Allan
We are taught here to give God custody of our heart. If we fill our hearts with His word, his truth and promises, there will be no room then for a sinful nature in our hearts. And with Christ guiding us every step of the way, we will live our lives wholly for Him.
Thank you Pastor Allan, for this beautiful message, and for the whole Proverbs journey.
Love your knowledge and your version thought.
– What we allow to enter into our heart and what we allow to exit out of our heart will define us.
– Take your own heart into custody. It’s the starting point and limits of your own revival.
Thanks for this gold Ps Allan
This is so good, so much incredible wisdom around a great verse.
Your wisdom question is a great challenging qyestion. So important for us to recognise this, not always easy.
Revival will start with you, with your heart, with you guarding your heart, and will flow like a beautiful clear mountain spring from there to others. – Wow, I absolutely love this!
It all starts with me!
Pastor Alan, there is soooo much to feast your eyes on there, especially wimpy Bar, the wimpy was the best food “EVER”, even to this day I mite just pop into an old wimpy to remind myself of my childhood and I’ve even taken my Grandkids to wimpy and tell them all my old stories👏🏽😂👍🏾.
I remember times we wood go over to the lake (in Barking Essex) swinging on the ropes that was hanging over the ledge river and play on the edge of a steep ledge (called dead mans walk), playing there all day until evening came, The we wood go to the Fair in the night, jumping on bumber Cars , & the waltz and caterpillar ride, wow pastor Alan this has reall caught my imagination & brought me back to my childhood with “GREAT MEMORIES” 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽😉👍🏾
I cood actually right soooo much more pastor Alan but keep them stories coming 👍🏾
To be intentional each day as to what we let into our inner person (our heart and mind ).
To remember Gods grace and forgiveness.
To strive to be better version of our selves.
To hold close to our hearts the nature of our heavenly father.
Let revival start with each one of us,
So what ever flows out from us will be to bless others and not tear them down .
Such wonderful memories this bought up of the happy free days out for adventure with my brother and a couple of other kids from the street. Short of needing to be home by the time the street lights went on you were free to roam all day. Too young to understand the struggles of the adults around you.
I shall ponder that feeling of freedom today.
From time to time I read one of these daily instalments and find that “this is the best one so far!”.
This is another one of those.
“Private victory always precedes public victory.
As we humble ourselves and submit our whole life willingly to God we gain a watchtower of full-time guards that never sleep and are constantly vigilant around our secret places, our inner person, and our lips, tongue and mouth. Holy Spirit thank you!”
As these words unfolded with meaning in my mind I knew them to be true. I want to seek God and accept his offer to be blessed by him as I guard my heart with his help. Then the springs of life will flow through me… Benefiting others which of course is God’s heart that none should perish. Perfect