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Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life—Proverbs 4:23

King Solomon (above) explains our most important job in life: Guarding our hearts. He notes that the part of us which reasons, makes choices, and feels love, fear, hatred, passion, etc., is to be carefully watched to keep us from making foolish choices.

Solomon suggests that even when we have strong beliefs and personal knowledge about God, the unsupervised “heart” can drift into disaster.

And since the heart is the command center of our lives, if it is disordered or diseased, then like a country dirt road with deeply etched ruts, our lives will undoubtedly follow that same track.

We are called upon to watch over our hearts at all costs as the seduction of our affections is actively in progress. What we give ourselves to will be the difference between a heart bent toward God and one hardened to his possibilities.

Above all else implies that it isn’t easy to guard or keep one’s heart. There will be many opportunities to give our heart to a person, priority, or path that wisdom would warn against. Vigilance, as opposed to carelessness, is our only hope.

Perhaps the upshot here is that as we make choices, our choices will make us.

Bringing our heart along in our life’s journey is the most important mission of our lives—and the hardest. It all turns on what we do with our desire. If you will look around, you will see that most people have abandoned the journey. They have lost heart. They are camped in places of resignation or indulgence, or trapped in prisons of despair.[1]