The heart

How your heart influences your actions and what you can do to improve yourself through guarding your heart.

I am not able to quote particular bible verses, I hope to work on that but there's a verse in Proverbs that says,(and I am paraphrasing) guard your heart above all else for everything you do flows through it.

It might seem light to you but when you read that entire chapter(proverbs 4), you do realise that our actions are so influenced by what we do take in and what we pay attention to. You also do realise that your heart is most important and it must be guarded because it influences our every action.

If you make it a habit to pay attention to any kind of vice, in a way that you practice it daily, you will most definitely become a pro at it! But if you decide to pay attention to what God says by reading his word, if you decide to take more time in fellowship, if you decide to atleast try to change to that lifestyle that you know is good for you, you will definitely reach where you aim at reaching.

We usually face a few challenges when trying to change our lifestyle and guard our hearts from what might be bad.

We do struggle with trying to avoid some sinful behaviors but all in vain.We usually try to avoid the sin but keep the environment constant. We keep the people, the surrounding and many other triggers that may exist.It is like realizing that you are smelling and you only change your clothing without showering.You will still end up smelling.

I have come to believe that what I am telling you about is consistent, that is spiritually, and even scientifically( biologically and even psychologically).

Biologically, focusing on something with the eye let's you see more detail on it and makes you know more about it.Whatever you are not focusing on is in the blind spot.For example if you are in the sitting room looking at the TV, you will know what is playing on the screen, you can even know which particular people are talking but you can't realise the very big pimple on your brother's face. Similarly, if you are not paying attention to God's word by reading it, you can't even know what he says you should do.

The first step to guarding your heart is to know what you are guarding it from and I think some of these things are easy to identify on our own and by also reading the word.

The next is to put up the structures that guard our hearts. We can do this by having people we think can help us on our journey around us and by paying attention to the things of God. You do realise that if you have ever been good at anything or even just preoccupied by it, it overflows into your daily life. What I mean is if you play fifa everyday all the time, you will make fifa jokes. If you read chemistry all the time, you will be talking in that sense, if you watch alot of football, you will start to make football references on real life situations, we all see the football references guys on the X app have been making in regards to dating a girl.Now what if you pay more attention to the word of God? Don't you think you will be sering things in his light?

After changing the environments and people that influence us to do some things, and changing what we pay attention to, our life starts to change and we are able to guard our hearts against things we usually couldn't.

It is usually hard to change these things but when you do, you prevent regret that comes from the vices that yoy hate but can't stop.

The last step and the one that is integrated with every step is prayer. Always pray as you move so that God himself guides you on what to do.

Guarding your heart is important because your actions,thoughts and decisions are all as a result of what is going on in your heart. If your heart is filled with things regarded as unclean, you will act unclean. If you surround yourself with unclean surroundings and people you will be just that as well.

In conclusion, the heart is a big player in our daily life. When you guard it, you will prevent lots of avoidable mistakes!