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

 

Our actions reflect what lives in our hearts. That is why it matters so deeply what we allow to enter – and what we permit to take root within us.

 

Often, our hearts reveal themselves quietly. Not in grand moments, but through patterns in our responses, our habits, our words. If we are willing to pay attention, they will tell us exactly what they have been holding.

 

What is our first response when a difficult situation arises? Are we easily irritated, steeped in a negative attitude that spills out through our words? “My job is so frustrating. These people are so toxic. I am so unhappy. I wish I didn’t have to be here.”

 

Perhaps, friend, this is an invitation to guard our hearts against ingratitude – and instead choose praise for the provision God has given us.

 

When someone hurts or offends us, do we instinctively want to return the pain so that they may feel what we felt? Are we quick to hold grudges, or to cut people off entirely? It may be that we have not guarded our hearts against unforgiveness and have not yet chosen – again and again – to extend the same grace God has so freely given us.

 

And when we face a mountain that feels immovable, a problem with no clear solution, what rises first within us? Faith or fear? Do we declare the power of God over the situation, choosing to walk by faith and not by sight? Or have we allowed unbelief to quietly take residence, shrinking God down to the size of our circumstance?

 

Scripture urges us to take every thought captive. (2 Corinthians 10:5) It would serve us well, then, to take inventory of our immediate responses to life and to people – they offer insight into the condition of our hearts.

 

Whatever we do, may it reflect a heart that has been carefully guarded against the ways of this world, and intentionally filled with the goodness of God.

 

Prayer: Lord, I surrender my heart to you. Make your home within me, so that everything I say and do reflects a heart aligned with your truth and your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.