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Sharing God’s Word:
“KEEP THY HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE; FOR OUT OF IT ARE THE ISSUES OF LIFE” (Prov 4:23).
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Throughout the Bible the heart is viewed as the center of life and is
always associated with our thinking. Thus Solomon declares, “as a man
thinks in his heart, so is he”(Prov. 23:7). That is why verse 23 advises us
to “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
The marginal rendering is stronger: “keep thy heart above all keeping; for
out of it are the issues of life.” What you are today and what you will
continue to be is the consequence of your life. Others have put it this way
“Sow a thought, reap a word; sow a word, reap an action; sow an action,
reap a habit; sow a habit, reap character; sow a character, reap a
destiny.” So you see all life starts with our thinking.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov 4:23). Following these words
Solomon points out that such thinking affects the lips, the eyes, and the feet. In other words, our conversational
life issues from our thinking. “Put away from thee a forward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee”(Prov
4:24). It won't take you long to find out the kind of reading a person engages in; the kind of hobbies he is
interested in; the kind of life he is engaged in. It all proceeds from a man's conversation, and that, in turn, out of
the heart. This is why Jesus said: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”(Matt 12:34).
Our life further affects the observational life. “Let thine eye look right on, and let thine eyelids look
straight before thee”(Prov 4: 25). Your entire slant on life is affected by the way you think. When man has
organized his thinking he is not bothered by side issues. Paul has the same idea when he says, “.....this one thing
I do....” (Phil 3:13).
A still further area of life that is influenced by our thinking, is our operational life. “ Ponder the path of
thy feet, and let all thy ways be established” (Prov 4:26). Once again, the marginal rendering is even stronger:
“Let all thy ways be established, or ordered aright.” Once life’s challenges are challenged there is no question
as to the path that we should tread. That is why the Psalmist says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord” (Ps. 37:23).
The Control of Life is to “Keep thy heart with all diligence”(Prov 4:23). The New Testament helps us
to understand the secret of such control. Paul speaks of “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). No one can be sure of his life until he has brought his mind under the discipline of the Son
of God. So we see that the importance of life cannot be overestimated or under estimated when trials and
burdens come along.
Take the example Moses left us when he said “I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is
too heavy for me” (Num 11:14). The pressures and problems bore down on Moses like burdens on a camel’s
back. The last straw came when the children of Israel grumbled and whined about their menu in the wilderness.
Moses couldn’t stand it any longer; “Moses said to the Lord, why have ...You ... laid the burden of all these
people on me? Did I conceive all these people? ....where am I to get meat to give to all these people? ....I am not
able to bear all these people.... the burden is too heavy for me” (Numbers 11:10-15).
For us, the problem may not be all these people but all these problems, or all this pain, or all these
pressures. We feel like the patriarch, Jacob, who said, “all these things are against me” (Gen 42:36). But the
Bible says that “all these things work together for good to those who love the Lord.” Rom 8:28 and Rom 8:37,
says “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Like the camel with a heavy burden, we sometimes need to kneel in the desert place and let the Lord take
care of things, down to the last straw.
May our prayer be: May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me
from day to day, by His love and power controlling in all I do and say! ☜
COG,IT
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Food For Thought:
1 A potato baked in the coals for one hour makes an excellent side dish. A potato
baked in the coals for three hours makes an excellent hockey puck.
2 One wedding present to the happy couple was a toaster oven.
Soon after the honeymoon, the bride and groom tried it out.
Almost immediately, smoke billowed out of the toaster.
“Get the owner’s manual!” the husband shouted.
I can’t find it anywhere! The wife cried, searching through the box.
“Oops!” came a voice from the kitchen.
“Well, the toast in fine, but the owner’s manual is burnt to a crisp.”
3 A farmer was driving along the road with a load of fertilizer.
A little boy playing in front of his house, saw him and called.
“What’ve you got in your truck ?”
“Fertilizer,” the farmer replied.
“What are you going to do with it?”
Asked the little boy.
“Put it on strawberries,”answered the farmer
You ought to live here,” the little boy advised him
“We put sugar and cream on ours.”