OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - TUESDAY - 15/04/2014 - HEART: LIFE’S CONTROL TOWER BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

HEART: LIFE’S CONTROL TOWER

MEMORISE

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

Proverbs 4:23

READ

Proverbs 4:20-23

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

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

MESSAGE

Physically, the heart’s role in keeping a man alive cannot be undermined. This organ is very crucial to human existence. In the non-empirical world, the heart of a man is that part of his soul that directs his physical actions. Jesus made this clear in Mark 7:18-23. It is this “heart” we are considering in this study. It is popularly said that “the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart”. This means that the core issues of life are matters of the heart. This is the crux of what our Bible reading today is saying in verse 23.

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

What moulds a life comes from the heart. Ordinarily, the Bible says the heart is evil – deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). After a man experiences the salvation of Jesus, the heart is impacted and made available for working upon by the word of God. It’s supposed to be a dwelling place for the word of God so that it can be transformed to bring forth virtues, victories and success. For this to be experienced in reality, the child of God needs as a matter of duty to work constantly on the heart through studying, meditating and memorising the word of God.

Basically, the heart of a man can be in any of these four states:

1)            The roadside heart

2)            The stony heart

3)            The thorny heart

4)            The good heart

Our Lord Jesus Christ explained these states in a parable he defined as the key to all other parables (Mark 4:13-20). The state an individual’s heart assumes is the choice of the fellow. The heart is the place to receive knowledge, besides the head. Until knowledge is obtained in the heart, a person will not benefit from it. What kind of knowledge do you receive into your heart?

A working relationship between the heart and the mouth charts the course of a man’s life – whether good or bad. The mouth is the outlet of the heart; thus, the issues that mould a life are coming out of the heart through the mouth. The state of the heart is the true identity of a man. It is the place God looks at to relate to a man (1 Samuel 16:7).

ACTION POINT

Examine your thought pattern in the mirror of Philippians 4:8 and pray accordingly.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR

Hosea 11-14; Psalm 81