Guard Your Heart by Tami Gilman

This week a friend of mine, Brad B. was in the library at a seminary in Dallas when his laptop was stolen. He left it for a moment to look at a resource in another section. When he returned, the laptop was gone. I can only imagine how angry and violated he must have felt. To make matters worse, he and his wife are raising financial support to serve in the mission field full time and they don’t have the resources to just go out and buy another computer on a whim.

There is a lesson to be learned from this incident; perhaps a lesson in forgiveness. To be honest, however, I didn't focus on forgiveness. The first thing I thought of was “guard your heart”. Brad innocently left his belongings because he didn’t expect anyone to pass by and take them. Look at how easy it was for the opportunity to present itself, though. Isn’t Satan doing the same to us? He is prowling, lurking and waiting for us to let our guard down. Sometimes I believe we may even unintentionally invite him in. We make excuses for the content in the television shows or movies we watch. Innocence is stolen. We tell ourselves that premarital sex is okay because we are in love. Purity is stolen. We will be satisfied when we lose a few more pounds. Self confidence is stolen. We don’t have time to spend with God because our schedules are too hectic. Relationship is stolen. We don’t give of our resources because the budget is tight. Generosity is stolen. Pretty soon we don’t know what we have become and we rob ourselves of who we are supposed to be.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”. (NIV) This command should be taken seriously. Brad walked away from his computer for a brief moment and was caught off guard when he returned. He likely didn’t give much thought that anything of his would have been stolen.

To be clear, the fault is that of the thief. The thief took something that was not his. The thief is the criminal and he should face the consequences of his actions. Brad just gave him an opportunity. The computer was vulnerable because it was left unattended. We learn from our circumstances and I assure you this was a valuable lesson for Brad. It can be a valuable lesson for us too. Our hearts are vulnerable when we are complacent about the spiritual warfare that exists in the unseen.

I am not suggesting that we never trust anyone else or we become suspicious of everyone around us. I simply believe that we must guard ourselves against the schemes of the enemy; an enemy who is real and has an army of people who work on his behalf.

Be aware of the areas of your life that you may be innocently letting your guard down because that is how Satan finds his way into your heart where his only objective is to destroy it.