Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life
- Proverbs 4:23
What is diligence? When the Lord asks us to keep our heart with ALL diligence, what does that even look like?
All of my health and safety clients require diligence to keep themselves and their workers from falling into injury or prosecution.
I use a combination of what are called ‘positive performance (PP)’ and ‘negative performance (NP)’ measures. The same is to be used for the Christian walk.
Positive performance measures are those where we look in advance and see what might trip us up as we go through the day. I always use checklists and do not leave it up to memory or chance.
By using these measures we minimise the possibility of injury.
Negative performance measures are those we activate after we’ve had an incident and been derailed, such as a thorough investigation to make sure that same or similar type of incident doesn’t happen again.
As Christians, when we use PPM’s we minimise the opportunity for Satan to derail us. This is obviously the most important. In your Christian walk are you diligent? Do you forecast the areas where you might trip up over the coming day, night or week? I mean, really look ahead and acknowledge the hazard spots? When you have been derailed, how deeply have you dug into the incident to reveal the root cause? Because often we repeat these mistakes for years without correction.
After a train accident, investigations go on for weeks and sometimes months, yet, when we are derailed in our Christian walk we rarely even look back.
When God advocates that we keep our heart with all diligence, he is more looking at Positive Performance measures, where we keep it intact and on course. We don't remove the guards, such as prayer, reading, constant praise, joy, and awareness.
This precious place of rest for the Lord needs to be guarded. As you grow in your spiritual life, some areas will get easier and some harder. Growth is like that. The constant in all this — the thing we cannot change — is the diligence we apply to keep our hearts. Remember Moses and the rock!
Today’s prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for adding this scripture to your Bible. Often I don't do enough to protect my heart. In fact, I hardly think about it. I have seen others who really look after their hearts and keep them protected. Please help me to be like them, to see my heart as you do, and to recognise its importance in your design for my life.
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