Guarding Our Heart
(Proverbs 4:20-23)

Both of life and death gush out from the heart. Both happiness and despair overflow from the heart as well. People strive to control their environment rather than their hearts. If you can control your heart well, however, you can also control the environment you’re surrounded with.

1. The devil who steals and kills our heart
1) The devil who took away the heaven of Eden from Adam is the source of all the misfortunes humans face.
2) Sadness, frustration, despair, anger, anxiety, and misfortunes are the poison of the devil who destroys our lives.
3) The devil’s strategy
① He makes our heart stirred, putting us into chaos, and also disrupts whatever we do.
② He weighs down our hearts, causing us to lose liveliness and get sick physically and mentally.
③ He makes us feel depressed, lose hope, and fall into the pit of sadness and loneliness.
④ He demonizes our lives, making us become a destructive slave to him.

2. The most precious things to us
1) It is so precious to have joy, thanksgiving, peace, and hope in our heart.
These things touch our heart and make it overwhelmed while ensuring that we live a lively and happy life.
2) No matter how much riches and honor we enjoy materialistically, it cannot be compared to having joy and happiness in our heart.
3) Nothing can buy the faith, hopes, love, righteousness, peace, and joy which have taken firm root in our heart.

3. What sweetens the bitter water in our heart
1) The Cross of atonement of Jesus
- He destroyed the power and authority of death of the devil on the cross.
- On the cross, Jesus bore the extreme sadness, loneliness, the agony, the fear of being abandoned, and physical pain in our stead.
2) Jesus overcame and disarmed the ruling, power, and authority of the devil as well as the deadly acts he exercise since the fall of Adam
3) As the risen Lord, Jesus has become the source of eternal water for us.
4) True joy, hope, courage, peace, and happiness lie in Him only.
5) We ought to do the followings:
① Realize the truth and the grace of Jesus.
② Overcome the devil and take delight in looking at oneself who has become a child of Jesus.
③ Believe in that God will pour out life miraculously in our heart through the Holy Spirit.
④ Defeat all the lies of the devil with confession on our lips and let our thanksgiving and praise toward God overflow.

Though people today enjoy materialistic prosperity unmatched to that of the past, they feel poorer in heart than ever. The poisons of depression, despair, disappointment, emptiness, a sense of abandonment, which are the diseases in the heart, are poured into our heart making us feel so unhappy. A life without a heart filled with happiness is like a graveyard.