6 Ways to Keep the Heart
John Flavel (1627–1691) was an English Puritan pastor, theologian, and author who faithfully preached and lived out the gospel. He was a vigorous and voluminous writer.
The following article is excerpted from All Things Made New.
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23
To keep the heart is to preserve it carefully from sin which disorders it, and maintain that spiritual and gracious frame which fits it for a life of communion with God. And this includes these six acts in it:
Study the heart.
Worldly and formal people pay no attention to this, and cannot be brought to confer with their own hearts. There are some men and women that have lived forty or fifty years in the world, and have scarcely had one hour’s discourse with their own hearts all that while. It is a hard thing to bring a man and himself together upon such an account; but saints know that these times are of excellent use and advantage. The heathen could say that the soul is made wise by sitting still in quietness. Though bankrupts care not to look into their account books, yet upright hearts will know whether they make progress or not. The heart can never be kept, until its case is examined and understood.Grieve over sin.
Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, and the people were ordered to spread forth their hands to God in prayer, aware of the plague of their own hearts. Many an upright heart has been laid low before God. O what a heart I have! They have in their confessions pointed at the heart as the place of real pain. “Lord, here is the wound, here is the plague-sore.” It is with the heart well-kept as it is with the eye, which is a fitting emblem of it, that is a small bit of dust gets into the eye, it won’t stop watering until it has been wept out. Just so, the upright heart cannot be at rest till it has wept out its troubles, and poured out its complaints before the Lord.Pray for grace to deal with indwelling sin.
As Psalm 19:12 says, “Forgive my hidden faults”; and Psalm 86:11 says, “give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Saints have always many such prayers before the throne of God’s grace, and this is what is most pleaded by them with God. When they are praying for outward mercies, their spirits may be more remiss, but when it comes to the heart’s case, they they extend their spirits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep and make supplication: oh, for a better heart! “Oh, for a heart to love God more, to hate sin more, to walk more closely with God. Lord, deny me not such a heart, whatever else you deny me; give me a heart to fear, love, and delight in you, even if I have to beg my bread in desolate places.”Put in place strategies to help the heart.
This will include the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more closely with God, and avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin. Well composed, advised, and deliberate vows are, in some cases, of excellent use to guard the heart against some special sin; so Job 31:1, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” By this means, holy ones have overcome their souls, and preserved themselves from defilement from some special heart-corruption.Be on constant alert.
Exercise a constant holy jealousy over your own heart. Quick-sighted self-jealousy is an excellent preservative from sin. He who will keep his heart must have the eyes of his soul awake and open to all the disorderly and tumultuous stirrings of his affections. If the affections break loose, and the passions are stirred, the soul must discover and suppress them before they get to a height. As we fear the Lord we depart from evil, shake off false security, and preserve ourselves from sin. He who will keep his heart must eat with fear, rejoice with fear, and pass the whole time of his sojourning here with reverent fear. And all of this is scarcely enough to keep the heart from sin.Keep in mind the all-seeing eye of God.
And lastly, to add no more, it includes the realizing of God’s presence with us, and the setting of the Lord always before us. In this way the people of God have found a singular means to keep their hearts upright, and awe them from sin. When the eye of our faith is fixed upon the eye of God’s omniscience, we dare not let our thoughts and desires go to worthless things. Job didn’t dare allow his heart to yield to an impure, vain thought, and what was it that moved him to such carefulness? Why, he tells you: “Does he not see my ways and count my every step?” (Job 31:4). “Walk before me,” says God to Abraham, “and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1).