Battle Drill #7: Guard Your Heart!

Proverbs 4:1-27 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the seventh battle drill – Guard Your Heart!

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Today, I am prescribing for you a battle drill that requires a lifestyle change, “Watch over your heart with all diligence!” Sorry, there are no pills to take that allow you to simply carry on with life as you want to live it and have a healthy heart anyways. So that you don’t think you are at your annual cardiologist appointment, being told yet again that you need to lose some weight, exercise, and watch what you eat (oh by the way, do those things!), I want to explain the Bible’s use of the word, “heart.” While it can mean the physical organ in your body, in the Bible, “heart” [leb in Hebrew and kardia in Greek] often speaks to the “seat of physical, spiritual and mental life… As [the] center and source of the whole inner life, w. its thinking, feeling, and volition… of [your] disposition.”[1] The Bible’s usage of the word “heart” has a range of meanings, but for our passage it is the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind, intellect), volition (will), emotions (the affections), and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience). It is the control center of your life.

Today’s battle drill flows logically from last week’s teaching by Pastor Ken from Proverbs 3, “choose to do good.” Ken taught us that we need to train “good sense and sound judgement in practical matters.” Building upon last week’s teaching, today, we are going to learn the importance of protecting the core center of our ability to choose God’s will and do good! Let’s listen to this battle drill from the Field Manual in its entirety, Proverbs 4:1-27:

Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding, for I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live; acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; and with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; she will present you with a crown of beauty.” Hear, my son, and accept my sayings and the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths. When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; and if you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.

There is so much to learn from the Field Manual, let us now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as a good soldier of Jesus in God’s army.

As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, approach the application of this teaching from a military perspective. When I was in the infantry, during foot movements toward an objective we would establish patrol bases to plan, prepare, and rest. There were priorities of work that had to be done in a patrol base, but one thing that always happened was security – there was a watch! We would set up a perimeter and then the squad leaders would put the soldiers in pairs, or battle buddies, so that, when one was planning, preparing, or resting, the other was watching outwards in their sector of fire. The sectors of fire of each position were interlocking, they intersected with the position to their left and right, all the way around the perimeter, so that together the unit covered every potential enemy angle of attack. There was never a time that the unit was not being watched over, or guarded, or kept safe, or preserved for the mission. Most of the time we would do 50% security meaning one out of two soldiers was planning, preparing, and resting while the others were watching, but there were times, especially in what is called “stand-to,” at dawn and dusk, where every soldier was on the line, watching, because these were the times when there is most likely going to be an enemy attack.  For most of us, the “stand-to” equivalent is H.A.L.T. – when we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. That’s when we need to guard our hearts and have interlocking arms as one unit. The church needs to be on alert against the schemes of the devil.

I teach you this because this is the imagery behind Paul’s promise of peace, found in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul is using military language based upon Jesus’ promise in John 14:27, when Jesus teaches us that the source of protection is found in the promise of the Holy Spirit being sent to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Don’t let the central control room of your life be overrun by the enemy! This protection is from the indwelling presence of God in you and in us! We need to have intersecting lives because there should never be a time that the unit is not being watched over, or guarded, or kept safe, or preserved for the mission. This is a work of God in us and through us – both-and!

God is the one watching the perimeter of your life, and that must begin at the central control room – your heart. God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the way to peace and His peace guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Jesus desires to superintend our attitudes and actions, to transform our entire personhood through the Holy Spirit’s work.

This is what Paul teaches us in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Simply stated, invite Jesus onto the throne of your heart and He will guard you heart and mind, causing you to become like Him, an image bearer of God where the Spirit is at work in and through you for the glory of God! That brings us to action step #3.

You are invited to live your life for the approval of the One who enlisted you and called you to Himself. This happens in the custom-made yoke of Jesus where we learn to become like God, as Jesus described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:28-30). The righteousness of Christ (godliness, holiness) must flow from the source of the One who is righteous, not from our efforts because the only thing we can produce of our flesh is filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We are to apply diligence to the battle drill of guarding our hearts, for from it come our ability to choose to do good and walk in the way and cry out to God for discernment.

My heart is Christ’s home![2] It’s exclusively God’s and does not belong to any other, including me! I have given Him the right of ownership; the deed belongs to Him alone.

A common biblical image of this concept is an agricultural one, from a fruit-bearing tree. God’s eternal fruit (John 15:1-8) and predestined good works you were meant to walk in (Ephesians 2:10) only happen in your life as a disciple of Jesus when it flows through the root system of a tree planted by streams of living water. Psalm 1:1-3 poetically states of this truth,

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers” (cf. Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13; Zechariah 14:8; John 4:10-14; 7:37-38; Revelation 7:17).

The nature of the fruit is determined by the nature of the root. A person can only produce fruit in like-kind to what is in his or her heart. Listen to Jesus teach this in Matthew 7:15-23:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

How then shall we live on mission? That takes us to our final action step in training to live on mission as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

We are invited to live by faith, which is a life of daily surrendering to Jesus to be at the center of all that we think, say, and do. With that said, there is a common image the Bible uses for a preservative, and that is salt. When you combine these concepts, maybe Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13-16 will make more sense and be more applicable as an action item of your life:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

You are a preservative of God’s will in the world that He so loved that He sent His one and only Son to save the world and to show them His great love and the way they are to live. As your heart is preserved with the living presence of God, then you become, more and more, the preservative of the way, the truth, and the life of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to close with an everyday image from your home. Your heart is like the water softener of your house. It ensures the water is fit for consumption and won’t do damage to the household. The water softener requires routine maintenance, as well as diligent effort to put 40-pound bags of salt into the tank. In the same way, your heart, the control center of your life, requires the routine maintenance of prayer and confession, community and worship, as well as the diligent effort of Bible study, service, and outreach. We must apply all diligence to the preserving of our hearts because it is out of our hearts that our words and actions flow, and unless we want to do damage to the household of God, we must ensure that what flows out of heart is pure. Jesus taught about the urgency of this in Matthew 15:13-20, and I close with Jesus’ words as a call to apply all diligence to this battle drill in your life:

“Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man…”

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 508-509. This work is commonly referred to as BDAG.

[2] I encourage you to read Robert Boyd Hunger’s 1951 classic, “My Heart Christ’s Home” at https://www.usna.edu/Navigators/_files/documents/MHCH.pdf.