It’s a pretty simple principle really . . . if the reservoir is contaminated, the water that flows from it will be contaminated . . . that’s why care is taken to protect natural sources of drinking water. Allow livestock to graze too close to water sources and you run the risk of harmful bacteria polluting what should be sources of health and instead making them potential sources of illness and death. So, what’s got me thinking about polluted water this morning? A very simple but profound piece of counsel in Proverbs . . .

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” – Proverbs 4:23

The heart, in a biblical context, is not so much the seat of emotion but the center of understanding. It is the soul of a man . . . his mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, and memory. It is the seat of his conscience and moral character . . . what he is resolved or inclined to do . . . it is the reservoir of who we are and what we do. Not surprising then that it doesn’t take long for the voice of wisdom to address the importance of the heart . . . “apply your heart to understanding (Prov. 2:2) . . . let your heart keep my commands (3:1) . . . write them on the tablet of your heart (3:3) . . . let your heart retain my words (4:4) . . . keep them in the midst of your heart (4:21) . . . keep your heart . . . for from it flow the springs of life (4:23 ESV).”

I can play it pretty loose with heart . . . rather than vigilantly guarding it, it’s way too easy to just let whatever graze way to close to it. Probably some pride at play, “Not my heart! It couldn’t get contaminated” . . . or maybe a bit of laziness, “Whatever, I just wanna veg . . . too much effort to maintain some discipline” . . . or, just snoozin’ at the wheel, not really paying attention or applying any discernment as to whether some “input” has the potential to contaminate.

Put the exhortation is to keep watch . . . to place a guard in front of . . . to preserve and protect the heart. How come? Contaminated heart, contaminated life. It is the well of our walk. It is the spring of life. If the heart is messed up, guess what? . . .

I remember some preacher saying years and years ago, “You aren’t what you think you are . . . but what you think is what you are.” Jesus said it this way, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” (Matt 12:35) What we are . . . what we really are . . . springs from the heart, the seat of our thinking, and so, we should be very careful with what we allow to influence the place of understanding and discernment.

I was reading also in Ezra 6 this morning. Those who had returned from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple keep kind of got this . . . “Then the children of Israel who had returned from captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the LORD God of Israel” (Ezra 6:21). They’d hung out in Babylon long enough . . . been there done that. I’m guessing that many had had their hearts turned toward the values and ways of Babylon. But there were others who looked for a chance to get out . . . and when that was presented, returned to the place where God said His presence would be found. And, upon getting there, they distanced themselves from the contamination of a world opposed to the things of God. They understood the risks associated with righteousness having fellowship with lawlessness . . . with light trying to have communion with darkness . . . with the people of Christ entertaining the ways of Belial . . . with the temple of God making room for idols (2Cor. 6:14-17). To not separate themselves was to not guard the heart with all diligence . . . to risk it becoming polluted and springing forth actions reflective of contamination.

Keep your heart, Pete. Yeah. If I want to live in manner that honors and pleases my Savior . . . if that’s the downstream effect I desire, then I better be vigilant about protecting the source . . . by His grace and for His glory . . . amen.