Guard Your Heart

The thing about writing these pieces is that I’m usually writing to myself. It’s a well-known phenomenon that the things we are most passionate about are often personal pain points. This case is no different.

My heart feels very raw and very open right now, which suggests a wound. Being too open and vulnerable is a natural effect of having a wound, but it cannot be a long-term state. When someone gets cut, it’s natural to assess it and treat it with care because it’s exposed. But eventually, we need to work on closing it and restoring it to optimal condition so that part of the body can function as it should. There is an obvious loss of ability if we don’t manage to close the wound and get it back to working condition.

Our hearts work in a similar way. When something painful wounds us, we need to handle it gently, taking care to assess and clean it out. But then healing needs to follow—hopefully with minimal scarring—but it definitely needs to happen.

Here’s the part that has taken me by surprise: the depth of some wounds seems to be clearly within our own control.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life,” writes Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. He admonishes us to guard our hearts, but how? Well, if we keep reading, we can see some practical advice:

“Be anxious for nothing, 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 minds through Christ Jesus.”

“Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.”

Well, that’s lovely. A nice little list for me to read through and immediately fail at. I do try, but there are some things on that list that have been constant struggles for my whole Christian life.

But then Paul in the New Testament adds another layer:

“Be anxious for nothing, 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 minds through Christ Jesus.”

Ah, there it is. As usual, the older texts contain a list of things we might struggle to achieve, serving to show us how frail and weak we are. But under the new covenant, Paul adds an important element for the parts we can’t control: Stop stressing, pray, give thanks, and God will bring peace, which will guard our hearts and minds.

Woah, wait a minute.

He’s saying that an extra layer of protection is provided by the peace of God, and that peace comes when we purposely choose to stop being anxious, pray, and lift up our requests to God.

You might think it’s a little careless of me to just say, “stop being anxious.” Anxiety is a big issue, and it seems to have intensified over the past 20 years. But I’m being intentional here. Anxiety arises when we overthink situations that are beyond our control. Our minds go around and around the issue, trying to find a chink in the armor, a hole in the wall—anything that might help us move forward. In a healthy state, this serves us well, helping us navigate dangerous situations and find solutions quickly. But it’s never meant to be a long-term state of mind. We are not designed to live in this heightened state permanently. It damages us.

Most of the time, when it’s not an emergency, a solution comes when we finally rest, when we stop straining to hold onto thoughts that were never meant to be ours to keep. When we finally loosen our grip on what we cannot control, the way forward becomes more apparent.

So I do believe we can stop being anxious. It might take some practice, but I am determined to step into this next season choosing to lift up my prayers and requests to God, choosing to let go of the things I can’t control, and letting the peace of God serve as a barrier around my heart. Because I do need to guard my heart, because my heart will determine my path forward and my future, and I want it to be good!

Wanna join me?