Being a Keeper of your Heart

Last night I went to a ladies meeting at my pastors house. My pastors wife had a little study prepared for us. It was really good, I just wanted to share. She had recently been studying Proverbs 4:23--
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

She then told us the meanings she looked up for the key words in the concordance.

Keep--to guard, protect, maintain, obey
Heart--feelings, will, intellect(which is our soul)
Diligence--to guard, watch, to attend to, to save from those who lie in wait
Issues-- boundaries and borders, deliverance

We also went to Jeremiah 17:9-10--"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. "

Our soul is self centered and can bend towards our redeemed spirit or the worldly flesh. I think this is why the above verse is so important. We must "guard, protect and maintain our soul with persevering painstaking effort because out of it our boundaries and borders are set and deliverance is made."

I think that the verse from Jeremiah ties into this, because we must maintain those boundaries around our heart to not only keep things out, but also to keep self centered ugliness reined in.

We went into deeper discussion about these verses and it was a good time of sharpening each other. I always find God's word so amazing when you really get in there and start digging. He is so full of mercy, grace and justice.