Guard the Spring: Keep Thy Heart with All Diligence

At a glance

• Proverbs tells us to keep the heart with all diligence, because the issues of life flow out of it.
• A farm family guards the spring that waters its house and its fields, because whatever gets into the spring reaches everything downstream.
• Today: run one thing you take in every day through the list Paul gives in Philippians 4:8.

The passage

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23 (KJV)

The picture

Picture a farm that draws its water from a spring on the hillside. That one spring fills the kitchen kettle, the barnyard trough and the ditch along the garden rows.

So the family guards it. University extension services give plain advice. Keep livestock fenced away from a spring, steer muddy runoff around it and keep the cover on tight. Whatever gets into the spring does not stay at the spring. It runs down the pipe into every glass and every row.

Solomon asks us to keep the heart the same way. In Scripture the heart is more than feelings. It is where a person thinks, wants and decides. And the verse tells us why it matters so much: “out of it are the issues of life.” The old word issues means what flows out, and a standard Hebrew lexicon renders the phrase as sources of life. What we say, what we do, how we speak to our families and how we treat the people we work with all flow from the heart. A muddy spring cannot send clean water down the hill.

Notice the word diligence, too. A fence around a spring is not built once and forgotten. A cow leans on a post, a storm washes out a ditch, a gate is left open. Somebody has to walk out and check it. Keeping the heart works the same way. It is a watch kept every day.

What gets through

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

Paul tells us what belongs inside the fence. He does not try to catalog every evil thing a Christian should keep out. That list would never be finished. Instead he names what may come in and be dwelt on: what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. Whatever does not match is not given a place to settle.

One caution keeps the picture honest. No farmer makes the water. He can only guard it. The same is true here, and far more deeply. We can mend the fence, but we cannot make our own hearts clean. Just before this verse Paul promises that “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Our diligence is real and it is required. The keeping that finally holds is His.

Try this today

Choose one thing that flows into your mind every day. It might be the evening news, a talk radio show or the conversation at your lunch table. Before today ends, hold the last few things it gave you up to Paul’s list. Was it true? Was it honest, just and pure? Was it of good report? If it fails the check more often than it passes, shut that gate for the rest of this week, and give the time to one chapter of Proverbs instead.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You see my heart more clearly than I ever will. Forgive me for the gates I have left open and the things I have let settle there. Teach me to keep my heart with all diligence, and to think on what is true, honest, just, pure and lovely. Where my watch fails, let Your peace keep my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. In His name I pray. Amen.