Guard Your Heart... Or Not?

Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

As you can read, scripture tells us to guard our heart because it is very precious and vital to all of the "issues of life." But what does this mean? I think one of the obvious answers is to protect it from evil influences. The things we see and hear affect what we do, think, and feel. We need to be diligent to protect our heart from external things which may harm us spiritually. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). So, obviously, we need to protect what goes into our heart.


But I see nowhere in scripture that it tells us NOT to give it away. You may argue that you are protecting it by not letting your feelings get hurt by being rejected or mocked by being open about what is in your heart. But I believe that our greatest opportunities and successes come when we open our heart to people. When we say sincere words that are kind and encouraging, we may get rejected, but what an impact they can have. Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." A kind deed that meets another persons need without being asked (or even after being asked) to help is bearing one another's burdens (Gal 6:2).

I could go on, but the truth is that we need to give our hearts away. If Christ, who is in our heart, is given away to others in words and deeds, how many people would come to know Christ?

I urge you to guard your heart from evil influences, but don't guard it from the pain that comes from giving it away, Christ didn't.