"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Proverbs 4:23
Easy words to say. We know what it means to guard something, to lock it up tight behind walls of stone and ironwood gates and courtyards filled with strong-armed and well-armored men. But how does one go about guarding a heart. One's heart, in the non-organic sense, is not easily confined. Even if it were practical to lock ourselves in a tower, which I don't suggest, our hearts would by no means be safe. How do you guard something that is essentially metaphysical?
Corruption spreads like bacteria in the blood, fast and hungry and surrounded by delicious things to eat. Bacteria are small, by themselves, they look harmless enough that we might not be able to tell the difference between the flesh-eaters and vitamin K-makers. So it is with corruption, and if we lack vigilance both can slip through cracks in the skin that protects and wreak havoc. The first step obviously then, it to keep them from getting inside.
"Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips." Proverbs 4:24
Corruption spreads like bacteria in the blood, fast and hungry and surrounded by delicious things to eat. Bacteria are small, by themselves, they look harmless enough that we might not be able to tell the difference between the flesh-eaters and vitamin K-makers. So it is with corruption, and if we lack vigilance both can slip through cracks in the skin that protects and wreak havoc. The first step obviously then, it to keep them from getting inside.
"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession." - George Washington
Step I:
Be careful what you allow yourself to take in. Don't let anything that carries a seed of corruption come inside, no matter how harmless is looks. (Anything by the way, means anything: books, television, speech, relationships, even thoughts, must be monitored for signs of infection and treated accordingly - a simple hand-washing will probably suffice for most things if you catch them in time James 4:8, but for those really tough jobs I suggest some serious knee-time and an industrial strength cleaner. Galatians 4:9, Proverbs 17:3)
Be careful what you allow yourself to take in. Don't let anything that carries a seed of corruption come inside, no matter how harmless is looks. (Anything by the way, means anything: books, television, speech, relationships, even thoughts, must be monitored for signs of infection and treated accordingly - a simple hand-washing will probably suffice for most things if you catch them in time James 4:8, but for those really tough jobs I suggest some serious knee-time and an industrial strength cleaner. Galatians 4:9, Proverbs 17:3)
"Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the 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 4:25-27
Step II:
Follow through.
Yup, that's it. Decide what you need to do, and do it. Don't be distracted by all the shiny color and sparkle of culture. It's all plastic and plaster anyway. People will think you're strange. That's all right. They might even call you a prude. Heaven knows there are worse things you can be called (unsaved, unrepentant and wicked come to mind). By the way, the word prude is short for prude femme, meaning virtuous woman. Isn't it interesting how culture has taken something good and made it sound bad? Sounds like corruption to me.
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