DEVO - Guard Your Heart Proverbs 4:20-23

DEVO - Guard Your Heart
Proverbs 4:20-23

The title of today’s devotion is Guard Your Heart.” Our culture is pretty crazy right now, pretty extreme. So, we’re going to Proverbs Chapter 4, verses 20-23. Grab your Bible, your journal or journal page, and something to write with. Focus in and let God speak to you.

Heavenly Father, please speak to us today through your Word and by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord. May your Word come alive to us today and speak specifically to our lives. In your name, Jesus, amen.

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NLT)
20 My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.
21 Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart,
22 for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.
23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.


20 My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Is that what we’re doing? Are we paying more attention to what God says than what the world says? Are we paying more attention to what God says than what the media says, or especially what social media says? Are we paying more attention to what God says today? Are we listening closely to his Word? Are we allowing the Word of God to drown out the flood of words that are coming at us from all the other sources that are constantly bombarding us? Again, verse 20 says, My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.

And then verse 21 says, Don’t lose sight of them. (Meaning God’s words) Let them penetrate deep into your heart… Guys, we have got to not lose sight of God’s Word in this crazy time. We’ve got to not lose sight of God’s words to us. We’ve got to not lose sight of God’s promises to us. Instead, we’ve got to allow the healing Word of God and his great and his precious promises to penetrate deep into our hearts. Again, verse 21 says, Don’t lose sight of them. (God’s words. My words, God says) Let them penetrate deep into your heart,

And then verse 22 says, for they (the words of God) bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Notice it says that God’s words bring life to those who find them. Are you finding God’s Word today, in the midst of everything that’s going around? Are you searching for God’s words? Are you fighting past all of the consuming things in your world in order to find God’s Word? To truly find it? To find it in a way that it brings healing to your whole body? Guys, God’s Word will bring healing, and peace, and comfort in these crazy times, but you have to find it. You have to search for it, and you have to find it. Again, verse 22 says, for they (for the words of God) bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.

And then, our final verse, our critical verse, verse 23 says, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Above all else, guard your heart. Guard it from the opinions of the world. And guard it from your own opinions. Guard it from ungodly influence. Guard it from fear and uncertainty that comes from ungodly, worldly influence.

Guard your heart above all else because it (your heart) determines the course of your life. The condition of our culture, the current pandemic, the anger and hate of the political divide in our nation, none of these things should be determining the course of your life. But they will if you let them. That’s why now, more than ever, we’ve to guard our hearts. We must guard what we take into our heart, and we’ve got to guard what we take into our life, and the previous verses here in Proverbs 4 tell us what to let in and what to keep out of our heart.

Again, look back at verse 20. It says … pay attention to what [God] says, not the world. Listen carefully to [God’s] word. Not the world’s words. And then verse 21 says, Don’t lose sight of [God’s word]. Don’t lose sight of God’s Word by being consumed with the world’s words. Let [God’s Word] penetrate deep into your heart. Allow God’s Word to penetrate deep into your heart, to drive out the world’s words and the fear and uncertainty that they bring. And then, verse 22 says, for [the words of God] bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. But guys, we’ve got to fight through the world’s words, the world’s influence, and the consuming media of the world in order to find God’s words. God’s words that bring healing and life to our body, the life, and healing that we need. And then again, our big verse, verse 23, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Let’s pray right now that we would have the wisdom and the strength to guard our hearts above all else, to allow God’s words in our heart to determine the course of our life.

Heavenly Father, we pray that that would be the case, Lord. That we would pay attention to your Word, that we would listen carefully to your Word and not the world’s. That we would not lose sight of your Word, Lord. That we would allow your Word, and your words to penetrate deep into our hearts, Lord. That they would drive out the world’s words and the fear and the uncertainty that they bring, that the world brings, Lord.

And Lord, we pray, God, that as we do that, as we pay attention, listen carefully, as we keep your Word in our heart, that your Word would bring life to us and bring healing. Healing, and comfort, and peace that we need.

And Lord, right now, today, we commit to guard our heart above all else. Lord, we recognize that what we take into our heart WILL determine the course of our lives. And so, Lord, we commit to guard what we put in, and Lord, to choose to be filled with your words, with your Living Word, and with your Holy Spirit that you alone would determine the course of our lives. We thank you for it, Lord. In your precious name, Jesus, amen.


I pray this devotion has really, truly blessed you.

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