Weighing In On The Walk
Proverbs 4:23-27 (NASB) [23] Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. [24] Put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious *speech far from you. [25] Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your *gaze be fixed straight in front of you. [26] Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. [27] Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.
It is interesting that this passage works in the action of watching over your heart with what comes out of your mouth and the path of your feet. To me that is significant because it indicates that the path of your feet have a lot to do with what is inside of you. Jesus said that it's what comes out of a man that defiles him (that is the thoughts and intents of the heart), not what goes into him. You can listen to a really bad sermon and know in your heart that it is not from the Lord and reject it straight away. That doesn't defile you in any way shape or form. However, if we dwell on what the sermon has said, or whatever we have taken the time to accept and ponder, then that becomes part of our inner most being and will manifest itself in our speech and in our walk. Since we should only take in the good things we will end up on the crooked pathway. That is why we must guard our hearts so carefully, we must take the time to weigh each thing that we hear before we take it into our beliefs. We need to weight it from the viewpoint of the Lord (Rom 12), not from the viewpoint of humanity, because humanity gets it wrong pretty much most of the time.
It is interesting that this passage works in the action of watching over your heart with what comes out of your mouth and the path of your feet. To me that is significant because it indicates that the path of your feet have a lot to do with what is inside of you. Jesus said that it's what comes out of a man that defiles him (that is the thoughts and intents of the heart), not what goes into him. You can listen to a really bad sermon and know in your heart that it is not from the Lord and reject it straight away. That doesn't defile you in any way shape or form. However, if we dwell on what the sermon has said, or whatever we have taken the time to accept and ponder, then that becomes part of our inner most being and will manifest itself in our speech and in our walk. Since we should only take in the good things we will end up on the crooked pathway. That is why we must guard our hearts so carefully, we must take the time to weigh each thing that we hear before we take it into our beliefs. We need to weight it from the viewpoint of the Lord (Rom 12), not from the viewpoint of humanity, because humanity gets it wrong pretty much most of the time.