{"id":773,"date":"2013-05-13T10:53:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T10:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/?p=773"},"modified":"2013-05-13T10:58:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T10:58:04","slug":"guard-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGuard Your Heart!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"guardrails\"<\/a>We all should have boundaries, fence lines, guardrails that we set up for ourselves. They protect our lives, but more importantly, our souls. These guardrails direct our life\u2019s journey to \u201ca narrow path\u201d which leads to righteousness and peace. <\/p>\n

Guardrails are specific to each person\u2019s walk with Christ. Though there may be similar guardrails from one person to another, each person\u2019s journey with Christ travels along an individual path. Our personal boundaries or guardrails should not be shared, coerced, or forced upon others. <\/p>\n

Scripture gives us many examples of guardrails; Job made a covenant with his eyes not look lustfully upon a young woman. (Job 31:1) When we marry we create a major boundary restricting our fidelity to our spouses. Proverb 4:23-27 lists several guardrails for acquiring wisdom and prosperity spoken from the perspective of a father to his son;
\n23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
\n24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
\n25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
\n26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
\n27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.<\/i><\/p>\n

Other than God, we are the only ones that know our hearts. Where and when they stray, their strengths and their weaknesses, and their joys and pains, and how they react to liberty and restriction.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, God had only one commandment of restriction \u201cdo not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.\u201d I believe God also gave us a commandment of provision and blessing. When he created man and woman he said \u201cbe fruitful and multiply.\u201d I would consider this a great deal of freedom. Discipline your diet and curiosity and fill the world with children for my glory! Incredible freedom! Unbelievable liberty! Nonetheless, we know how Adam and Eve handled that freedom. Bummer!<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever the Spirit of the Lord is found there is liberty.\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:17) Jesus Christ represents a new covenant that gives us freedom from the old covenant of laws, rules, regulations, and condemnation. A new, glorious, everlasting covenant that makes us right with God through the shedding of Christ\u2019s blood. Through Christ we have been set free from sin, but have become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). We can no longer continue in selfishness and sin. You either do God\u2019s will or your will, God things or selfish things. The guardrails you set up will help keep you focused on Kingdom work and eternal matters.<\/p>\n

Paul says in Phillipians 4:4-7:
\nRejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all should have boundaries, fence lines, guardrails that we set up for ourselves. They protect our lives, but more importantly, our souls. These guardrails direct our life\u2019s journey to \u201ca narrow path\u201d which leads to righteousness and peace. Guardrails are specific to each person\u2019s walk with Christ. Though there may be similar guardrails from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfZYJd-ct","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sing2jesus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}