When the Lord said, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23), He obviously is not talking about that large muscle in our chests. The Bible uses the word “heart” over 800 times and almost always, if not actually always, refers to that inner part of our being. When the Lord discussed the greatest commandment, He spoke of loving God will all our heart, soul, and mind. That inner part of us is our soul.
What does it mean to keep your heart with all diligence? Our time and energy is limited and priority must be given to those things which are truly important. When the Lord described the attention which must be given to the heart, He used the word “all.” There is nothing more important than to devote ourselves and our time and energy to caring for our heart. Satan understands this and works to cause a severe “heart attack.”
Look at some of the words used to describe how we are to keep our heart. We are to love the Lord with all our heart (Deut. 6:5). We are to seek the Lord will all our heart (Deut. 4:29). We are to serve the Lord will all our heart (Deut. 10:12). We are to obey the Lord with all of our heart (Deut. 30:2). We are to trust the Lord with all our heart (Prov. 3:5). We are to turn to the Lord with all our heart (Deut. 30:10). Consider carefully the words mentioned above—love, seek, serve, obey, trust and turn. What could be more important than these words!
Think about it for a moment. If you were Satan, how would you attack the heart of Christians? It would not be a full-frontal attack using temptations he might openly use against the most worldly individuals. Is it not reasonable to see him getting the righteous to modify the level of their dedication? Would he not seek to weaken the love, the seeking, the serving, the obeying, the trusting and the turning to God? Would he not do this while at the same time deceiving us so we can hardly see the changes? In reality, it is a full-frontal attack, and we are not even aware of it. This is why the Bible speaks of the deceitfulness of sin.
Sometimes we measure our heart conditions by looking in the wrong places. Jesus described how the people in the first century focused on the external. “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Mark 7:6). These same words seem to describe our own day. Can we not see the danger in the way he attacks us? Satan attacks our hearts in this same way, and he wins if we are deceived by him. Think about the list of words mentioned above, just make sure that you are not close to a heart attack.
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