"Above All Else, Guard Your Heart..."

Today we had a special speaker from Australia, Pastor Nicholas Tsakis. Sorry I missed out on the title of the message. Anyway, the text is taken from Proverbs 4:23. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. There are many versions to this scripture and I have read this scripture many times in my walk with God...but never really grasp its meaning. Today, I found a whole new meaning of this scripture. Thanks to Pastor Nicholas.

Pastor Nicholas spoke with clarity on the topic of guarding our hearts. Our heart determines the course of our lives. But I kept asking myself 2 very basic questions, questions that I should have asked myself years back when I accepted the Lord as my personal Savior. Q1, what is it about my heart that God wants? Q2. Why does God love me?

This morning's sermon really did make me think. If our heart is the core of who we are, then it's our place of courage and determination or on the contrary, we allowed ourselves to cross the line from courage and determination to cowardice and indetermination. Our heart is indeed the driving factor in all that we do. At one point of my life, I was foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. But when the kindness and love of God appeared, he saved me and set me free...He did it not because of the righteous things I had done, or the things that I shouldn't have done but did it anyway... he saved me because of His mercy, because of His unconditional love for me.

Isn't it amazing that if God is in our hearts, there will be a plentiful source of water, with ample supply that never runs dry. I have experienced boredom, lack of inspiration and fears in my life, as the speaker said, what lies in our hearts determines what comes out of it. This is so true...But if we guard our heart, keep our heart and protect our heart, everyday that we live for Jesus, He will cause our heart to 'swell' with abundant life.

Thank God for this week's message, this scripture will be read in a completely different light from now on.