In the book of Proverbs, verse 4:23 states the importance of guarding our heart with diligence because of the issues of life that spring out of it. Whenever I’ve heard this verse, the context is usually around what we allow in to our heart. What if that wasn’t the most important way to guard your heart?

There are so many voices, images, ideas and ideologies, and influences that are important for us to watch in our lives due to how it impacts our hearts. That’s why it resonates so deeply when one is encouraged to guard their heart from what exists outside of it. However, I can’t remember when, but I remember someone mentioning that most don’t ever talk about guarding what comes out of your heart. It stuck with me ever since. To even think about guarding what comes out of your heart illustrates an uncomfortable truth, that what is evil often starts from within us, rather than outside forces.

If we were to imagine the practical ways we need to guard what comes from our hearts, let’s look at the process that it takes for us to get through security when going into a place. When you approach security, they first stop you and inform you they’re going to do a security check. Then, depending on the kind of security, a wand is used to scan your body for any unseen objects not permitted. The final step is where you need to empty your pockets of what you’re carrying, as well as a search of any bags you’ve brought in. There are dangers seen and unseen that security is there to prevent, and when it comes to what is in your heart, I believe God has shown me powerful imagery through these steps.

The steps of security stopping you and scanning your body is how we should take moments to examine what has come out of our hearts in each season, for out of the abundance of the mouth the heart speaks. The next and final step of checking your bag is being able to examine what you’ve been carrying that weighs you down or will negatively impact the issues of life that your heart is a wellspring of.

Proverbs 4:23 focuses mainly on what comes from within our hearts, because of how easy it is to trust what’s within us as if it is us. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, and we can end up self-deceived if we think that other things and people are more dangerous than you yourself can be. Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26) by His death on the cross for all sin, so that whoever believes on Him by faith will receive a new heart in Christ. For those of us who have been transformed by the Gospel, may we make it our life practice to guard our heart from what comes out of it, not just the outside dangers that we don’t want to come in.