Keep Your Heart with all diligence

Prov 4:23 - Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

I spoke on this verse last week in our father daughter banquet. As parents, espically fathers, we should keep watch over the hearts of our children because what is planted in their hearts will come out in the way they live. Jesus said out of the abundance or overflow of the heart the mouth will speek. In Mt 15:19 Jesus said - For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are issues that people are dealing with everyday. Well where did they start and where did they come from. Well proverbs tells us where they come from, our heart.

Verse 25 of Prov 4 gives what I think is one of the avenues by which things get into our heart. The verse says let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. Verse 26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. What we see speaks of what our focus is on. For example Eve looked at the apple before she began to think about eating it. Her focus was on how good it looked and how good it would taste for her. Her eyes cause her to think about herself rather than obeying the commands of God. Her eyes brought in the seeds of rebellion and disobedience that were planted in her heart thus the issue of her life was rebellion and disobedience to God and his word. I would like to ask the question today to all who read this blog, who do you see Jesus as. The scripture says in Heb 12:2 to look to Jesus. Who is the Jesus you are looking at today. Is he the Jesus of the bible or another Jesus that man has created. The scripture says that in the last days many would say here is Jesus or there is Jesus. But who do you say that Jesus is. In Mt 28:18 - Jesus says about Himself that "all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth". The world authority here is the greek word exousia or the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed). This is who Jesus said He was and represents all power and authority and because of this He must be submitted too. Do you see Jesus as someone who must be obeyed or is it optional. Jesus is called Lord over 600 times in the new testament while He is called savior only 15 times. Many people see Jesus as savior which means that they see Jesus as a way to be saved from that bad place called hell and a means to get to the good place called heaven. This is such a distortion of who Jesus is and what He has saved us from. Jesus the Lord of the universe has saved us from our sins which means He has provided a way for us to become free from the bondage of sin (disobedience to God) to that we can obey God and Jesus can become the Lord or supreme authority over our lives. As we look to the Jesus of the bible our hearts change from a heart of rebellion against God to a heart of submission and loving obedience to God. Out of a heart that now has gratitde and thankfulness because we've been saved from sin, we become loving disciples of Christ. Remember the eyes are the gateway to our hearts and also are things that sets the pathway or direction for our feet. AS we look to and our focus is on serving the Jesus of the Bible our feet will be established to go and to tell others that Jesus is supreme authority and that he must be submitted too at all cost.