Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil (Proverbs 4:23-27).
To keep your heart means to protect and maintain it. The heart should be guarded because out of it comes our actions. The heart is the seat of our intellect, emotions, character, and nature; it is the place of our values. In Matthew 12:34b-35, Jesus says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”
How does one protect or maintain his heart? The author of Proverbs says that we should put away from us a deceitful mouth and perverse lips (corrupt or foul language), that we should not have a wandering eye, but should let our eyes look straight ahead, concentrating on God’s word and not on human inclinations, that we should think on and walk in the righteous path the Lord has laid and prescribed for us.
Paul amplifies the above passage when he says, “brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Guard your heart and you will be established! You will reach the goal God planned for you.