If you’re looking for a good Bible verse to memorize consider Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

We need to guard our heart. Ray Ortlund explains that “The heart, in biblical terms, is not part of who we are but the centre of who we are.”*

That’s helpful. We need to guard our mental, emotional and spiritual centre.

But why is that important? The proverb goes on to explain: “for everything you do flows from it.” In other words, just as a river flows down a mountain from a spring at the top, so your decisions, words and actions flow from your centre, your heart.

What happens in your heart may seem private, but it impacts your actions and relationships.

We all struggle with different things. Some people secretly nurture anger in their hearts, or pornography, or pride, or grudges, or something else that only they know about.

If you’re not sure what to do if something has a secret stranglehold on your heart, I encourage you to reach out for help. I think that is one helpful step you can take in the guarding of your heart.

Another step is to cultivate godly practices in their place—like ongoing prayer, regular and honest conversations with a faithful friend, simple habits of joy which honour God, or memorizing important Bible verses. Psalm 119:11 comes to mind: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

The principle in this proverb is to guard your mental, emotional and spiritual centre: your heart.

This will improve your life and help ensure that your influence and legacy is increasingly light-filled and pleasing to God.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

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Notes:

—Please note that after July 31, The Up Devotional is going on pause for four weeks (while I enjoy some vacation time) but will resume on August 29, 2023. You can listen to past devotionals as a podcast wherever you subscribe, or you can read them at TheUpDevo.com.

–*Ray Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 18.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.