NearnessSample

The heart, according to Scripture, is more than the seat of our emotions and feelings. It’s the command center of our desires, decisions, and direction. What we allow to shape our hearts will inevitably shape our lives. This is the reason why Proverbs urges us to guard our hearts with spiritual vigilance, because everything flows from there.

Imagine a natural water spring deep in the mountains that flows down to a valley. If the spring itself is polluted, no amount of downstream filtering will fix the problem. Whilst you can try to clean the water, the real solution is to fix the source of the spring. In the same way, our outward behavior flows from the inner well of the heart. If the heart is sick, no level of moral effort will produce lasting health.

This is where the gospel offers more than advice; it offers transformation. In Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV), God promises something extraordinary: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. God knows our hearts need more than careful vigilance and moral effort: they need renewal. In His grace, through Christ, God gives us a new heart that transforms us from the inside out. A new spring. A new source.

We are not left to modify our behavior while our hearts stay unchanged. We are given a new heart, written on by grace, indwelt by the Spirit, and reshaped to love what God loves. That is the reason why we guard our heart, not to save it, but to treasure this new and precious gift.

Thus, we can keep watch over our thoughts, words, and steps—not to earn God’s favor, but in joyful response to it. Eyes forward, feet steady, and heart alive. Not in fear, but in faith.

Today, ponder this: Are you guarding your heart as one trying to earn God's love, or as one whose heart has already been made new by it?