{"id":12871,"date":"2020-07-31T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T10:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12871"},"modified":"2020-07-31T05:14:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T10:14:24","slug":"guard-your-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12871","title":{"rendered":"Guard your Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Confession. I was a fan of Steve Irwin as the \u201cCrocodile Hunter\u201d for years. Actually, I think it was his adorable daughter, Bindi, with her tender heart, optimism and spunk that drew me in the most. Of course, I was cheering for her when she was on \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and went on to win that season. In March, this year, Bindi married Chandler Powell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I\u2019ve caught you up with Bindi, I\u2019ll get to the point of my blog. Her dad, though facing dangers daily with fierce animals, always made a point to be alert and guard his body from any surprise attacks by the animals he encountered. But, he didn\u2019t guard his heart — the one area that was most vulnerable. At just 44, Steve\u2019s heart was pierced by the poisonous spine of a stingray. It was a tragic accident and loss for the world. The good news is his family carries on his work in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That story reminded me how important it is to guard our spiritual hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says: \u201cAbove all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.\u201d My blog, yesterday, referenced John 14:27 \u201cDo not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” That sounds like a command that helps us guard our hearts. Guarding our hearts is essential because it impacts everything we do. Our spiritual heart is the core of our mind, our will and our emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve heard it said: “They have cold hearts!” That means their heart has been hardened to tenderness, compassion and even causes their eyes to close to those things that hamper our relationship with God. And, I know those who have such sensitive and tender hearts that even when they see a frightened kitten they can’t help but be merciful to it. They are the ones who volunteer or support a charity because their warm-heart is drawn to removing suffering in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s why guarding our heart is so important. A heart that is guarded walks away from negativity. They leave because they don\u2019t want that “noise” in their heart. A guarded heart isn’t egotistical, boastful, or hateful. Remember when God said to Samuel about the big brothers of David who were tall, strong, handsome (and probably debonair with the ladies \u2013 okay, that\u2019s Donna\u2019s interpretation)? \u201cDo not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.\u201d 1 Samuel 16:7 God had already chosen David, the little shepherd boy who had a heart for God, for his sheep, and his music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to talk about our hearts today because, quite frankly, our hearts have been challenged during these months of so much change to our lives. Maybe your heart has become cold. Maybe some negative relationships and situations have fostered coldness in your heart. The unkind talk you’ve been around and listened to has affected your talk and walk. Maybe you are watching television shows and movies that are causing your heart to be compromised. It has become callous to killing, stealing, adultery, profane language. You just haven\u2019t thought about the impact on your heart that the enemy is intent on hardening. Maybe for some, it\u2019s social media and browsing the internet that has desensitized your heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m confessing to you that I am examining my own heart that easily gets drawn into matters that affect my heart condition -\u2013 that causes my heart to be less tender, less compassionate, less feeling. I pray that this blog is like a probe on our hearts that reveals what is causing the insensitivity, the hard-heartedness and the callousness. I pray our hearts are cleansed and we guard them with 10 feet tall angels stationed around them. That we not allow our spiritual arteries to get clogged up so much that we have a spiritual heart attack and our spiritual life implodes. “Above all else \u2013 guard your heart. Because everything flows from it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Confession. I was a fan of Steve Irwin as the \u201cCrocodile Hunter\u201d for years. Actually, I think it was his adorable daughter, Bindi, with her tender heart, optimism and spunk that drew me in the most. Of course, I was cheering for her when she was on \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and went on to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18155,18153,18151,18152,18154],"tags":[18149,18145,1210,18143,18146,18147,9695,2495,13347,18142,1012,2076,18144,18150,18148],"class_list":["post-12871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cold-heart","category-crocodile-hunter","category-guard-your-heart","category-steve-irwin","category-stingray","tag-arteries","tag-bindi-irwin","tag-blog","tag-cold-heart","tag-crocodile-hunter","tag-dancing-with-the-stars","tag-guard-your-heart","tag-heart","tag-heart-condition","tag-heart-pierced","tag-john-1427","tag-proverbs-423","tag-steve-irwin","tag-stingray","tag-tender-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12874,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871\/revisions\/12874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}