Wisdom In The Bible: The Key To Your Heart

Discover how biblical wisdom can transform your life in "Wisdom in the Bible: The Key to Your Heart." Learn how to walk in wisdom every day.

‘It is not your experience, knowledge, or skills. Your heart is your most important leadership tool.’ Michael Hyatt

Proverbs form a part of the Bible known as ‘Wisdom Literature’. Although this ancient book of wise sayings was compiled around 931 BC, there is much profound wisdom to be gleaned for our contemporary lives. Proverbs, like Psalms, names multiple individuals as the authors of its various sections, but Solomon likely served as its principal author.

Wisdom in the Bible: The key to your heart

With earthy wisdom about friendship, money management, discipline, and inner well-being, Proverbs offers short, punchy instructions for living a flourishing lifestyle. Today we'll explore practical steps to guard our hearts, ensuring our lives flow from God's wisdom and peace. Let’s explore practical steps to guard our hearts, ensuring our lives flow from God's wisdom and peace: My son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, Keep them within your heart. for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity. Keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your foot from evil. Proverbs 4: 20-27

Contemporary thinking often views the head as the seat of reason in our lives and the heart as the seat of our emotions. The Bible, however, is talking about something very different when it talks about the heart. In the Hebrew world, ‘the heart’ is a way of describing the very centre of who you are. It is the seat of your deepest trusts, commitments, and loves, out of which everything flows. The heart is the central control of our whole lives. No wonder the writer of Proverbs advises you to ‘guard your heart’, ‘above all else’: ‘everything you do flows from it’. We must guard our hearts because they are infinitely valuable. We only guard the things that are important to us. Think about the trash you leave out for the garbage man to remove. You leave it out all night unguarded because it has no value to you. Yet when we possess something of value, we take every precaution to keep it safe. When we realise the value of our hearts, we must take seriously the command to guard and protect them. But practically speaking, how do we guard our hearts?

Wisdom in the Bible: Guarding our hearts

The passage gives three helpful clues concerning our mouths, our eyes, and our feet. First, we must: “Keep corrupt talk far from your lips” (verse 24). Being around and partaking in negative and unkind speech can overflow into our hearts, making us bitter and judgemental. If we speak negatively about someone, it can sour our hearts towards them. Secondly, “Let your eyes look straight ahead” (verse 25). The Bible knows how many temptations exist for our eyes. Marketing, social media, immoral websites, the list goes on. There are so many places our eyes can be led astray, which in turn corrupts our hearts. We are advised, instead, to steady our gaze forward and upward to God.

Finally, we must “give careful thought to the paths for our feet” (verse 26). We may not always feel like doing what is right, but the Bible tells us that if we commit to walking in the right direction, our feelings will follow. Walking in ways that are impure can corrupt and cause damage to our hearts. Walking along righteous paths provides a nourishing and stable environment for our hearts.

Wisdom In The Bible: A healthy heart

In the Batman franchise, there is a moment when the character ‘Scarecrow’ wants to cause damage to the whole city of Gotham. He does this by poisoning the water supply. If you poison the water source, the flow becomes toxic. Everything depends on the condition of the water source. Likewise, if your heart is unhealthy, it has an impact on everything else. As well as steering our mouths, eyes, and feet, if we want to guard our hearts, the primary weapon of defence is worship. When we fix our hearts first and foremost on God, rooting our hearts in him and allowing him to transform us from the inside out, our whole life becomes settled on God. The source from which our lives flow is our hearts. Make God the primary focus of your heart, and the flow of your life will be a deep well of joy, peace, and life.

Let's Pray

God, please help me today to guard my heart, the wellspring of my life. I want you to be the fixed point my heart is settled on. Help me to steer my mouth, my eyes, and my feet towards you and your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.Discussion Question: Thinking about the three areas Proverbs tells us to guard: our mouths, our eyes, and our feet, which do you find the most challenging? Photos by Radek Skrzypczak & Silas Köhler on Unsplash