Guard your heart (2)
My son,pay attention to what I say.Listen carefully to my words.Don’t lose sight of them.Let them penetrate deep into your heart.For they are life to those who find them,and health to all their flesh.Keep your heart with all diligence,for out of it are the issues of life”-Prov 4:20-23
God’s words are like treasures in our heart.They are what I was referring to in Part 1 of this series as the treasures hidden in our hearts.
God’s words are hidden treasures that are found through a deliberate search for them
To a novice in gold jewelry,a 24-karat gold is like an ordinary stone lying fallow on the ground! He doesn’t know its value.That is why the same Scripture you read that saved you or transformed your life seems ‘valueless’ to someone else.
Solomon says:
- Pay attention to God’s words
- Listen carefully to them
- Don’t lose sight of them
- Allow them to penetrate deep into your heart
- Keep these words with all diligence in your heart ❤️
Why do we need to keep the words of God with all diligence? Why do we need to see the words of God as treasures in our heart? Why must we guard our heart?
- The words of God are LIFE
When God’s words penetrate into your heart,you harbour ‘life’ in your heart my brother and sister!
The Hebrew word for life is /chay/ which means alive,living thing.
/chay/ is used in Genesis during creation:
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life/chay/”-Gen 1:20
“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life/chay/, and the man became a living /chay/being”-Gen 2:7
Bearing the above Scriptures in mind,it means Solomon is saying the words of God are the ‘breath of life’ to those who find them!
“For they are life /chay/ to those who find them…”-Prov 4:22
The words of God in your heart are life.They make things become alive.Dead situations come to life where you find the words of God.
However,there was an issue with the life of God breathed into Adam.With the sin of mankind in the Garden of Eden,there was a limitation on /chay/.Man was sent out of the garden so that he wouldn’t eat the tree of life!
In the New Testament,the Greek words for ‘life’ are /Psuchē/ and /zōē/.
While in many of the NT scriptures /Psuchē/ generally means the ‘soul’ or “anything that has breath’, /zōē/ is associated with eternal life.It is a life that is beyond the cessation of the heart beat!
Let me start with Psuchē:
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life/Psuchē/, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life/Psuchē/ more than food and the body more than clothing?”-Matt 6:25
“Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul /Psuchē/and with all your mind”-Matt 22:37
“Let every soul/Psuchē/ be subject to the governing authorities…”-Romans 13:1
It is obvious there are some resemblances between /Psuchē/ and the Hebrew word /chay/.
On the other hand,/zōē/ is used in the New Testament differently to indicate eternal life:
“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life/zōē/, and there are few who find it“-Matt 7:14
“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life/zōē/”-Matt 25:46
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In Him was life/zōē/,and the life /zōē/ was the light of men”-John 1:1,4
“That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life/zōē/-John 3:15
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life/zōē/; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life/zōē/,but the wrath of God abides on him”-John 3:36
“The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life /zōē/ to the world”-John 6:33
“I am that bread of life/zōē/”-John 6:48
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life/zōē/”-John 6:63
Halleluyah,the words of God are LIFE.
GUARD YOUR HEART BECAUSE YOU HAVE ETERNITY WITHIN IT
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men”-Eccl 3:11
“I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God. I write so that you will know that you have eternal life/zōē/ now”-1John 5:13
Now that you know that eternal life is in you,will you guard your heart with all diligence?
Shalom.
