The Wellspring of Life

Proverbs 4:23 says this: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."

I have heard countless people use this verse to send the message that people should guard their hearts in romantic relationships, putting a "hold onto your heart for the right person to come along" spin onto the verse. While that may be a component to the verse (in my opinion a far fetched one) I don't think its the only one, or even the main one. I think that the verse has to do with what Paul talks about in Romans 10:10.

Paul says this in Romans 10:10 "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved"

So why should you guard your heart? it is because it is with your heart that you believe and are justified (Romans 10:10) Your heart is a key component to your faith and to your salvation.

Which leads me to say...guarding your heart does not mean smothering, stifling, ignoring, or otherwise killing your heart and what you feel there. It is the wellspring of LIFE! it needs to be alive and AWAKE! Guarding your heart means keeping things you know are bad for it away from it. Keeping things that pull you away from God out of your heart, whatever that may be. Guard your heart does NOT mean don't extend love to people. You should love everyone! "God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him (1 John 4:16)" You need your heart to be free of worldly garbage and full of God so that it can be the wellspring of life.

What is said right after the guard your heart verse?
"Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk from your lips" (Proverbs 4:24)
Why?
-- These two components, heart and mouth, go hand in hand (ha!)

The second part of Romans 10:10, as said before, states that, "it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved"

The state of your mouth and the words that come out of it also reflect what is in your heart, as Jesus himself says in Matthew 12:34 "You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

It is as if the two components, heart and mouth, work complimentary with each other. The heart being a little more important because it is the source for and behind the words of the mouth.

So why are these two things so important? Why should we guard them and keep them from perverse things? Paul has an answer for that as well:

"If you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved"(Romans 10:9-10)

As Proverbs says, your heart is the wellspring, the fountain, of LIFE! Eternal life through belief in Jesus Christ.

Changes

Change has been the theme of the past few months of my life. I graduated in May and now I am no longer a student. I have been a student for the past 17 years of my life...and I'm only 23. Most of my life has been spent under the label of 'student'. As glad as I am that I'm finally not one anymore, I was used to being a student, so its been a big change. I married my best friend Craig on October 10th, definitely a happy change :) and many changes have come along with getting married, like moving out of my parents house and learning how to live with a boy :) its all been exciting and new and different. In spite of the fact that we have already experienced so much change together in such a short amount of time, there is still more change to come. At the moment we don't know if we will be living here in BG for a while or if we will be moving to Pennsylvania or if we will be going somewhere else entirely.
I never used to enjoy change, to me it always meant uncertainty and the discomfort of learning to adjust to a new way of doing things. Now I am beginning to see change in a different light. Marriage has been, and I'm sure will continue to be, all about change. Learning to live with each other and to love each other in the ways that we each need to be loved may not always be easy but it is always worth it because it brings us closer together and that is good change. In the midst of so much change it is easy to find myself asking God to give me all the answers now. Where will we be living? Show me where you want us to be and what you want us to be doing. What is your will for us?? In my mind I had the idea that God's will for us was to either be here in BG or in Pennsylvania and I wanted him to tell me which it was. God answered my question, but not in the way I thought he would. Instead of laying before me a plan for the rest of our life (Craig's and mine), God laid before me two verses that showed me more clearly what his will is and what it means to follow it.

Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, o man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Romans 12:1-2: "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."

This is what God showed me through these verses: Give yourself, your body, to God, a.k.a walk with him daily. Through this you will be transformed in the way that you think, a.k.a becoming more merciful and more just. Then we will know what God's will is a.k.a what he requires of us a.k.a for us to have deep relationship with him, to love him intimately, to reflect him and to follow his example. God's will is for us to have a deep loving relationship with him!!

• we can do this no matter what job we have
• we can do this no matter what city we live in
• we can do this no matter how much money we have
• we can do this no matter how much stuff we have
• we can do this no matter what our past holds

So often I have expected these things to be a part of the answer when I asked God what his will for my life was. The answer to that question, EVERY TIME is love me, walk with me, know me!! It does not matter where we end up as long as we are walking with and maintaining relationship with God. As long as we are doing that the rest will fall into place.