Heart with diligence

Heart with diligence, froward mouth and right eyes

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. (Prov.4:23-25)

The first saying is that you should keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. These days, our heart is influenced by the environment in which we live. Our heart gets polluted when we watch movies of unbridled sex and violence or when we see the advertisements thereof on the magazines, newspapers, computer screens, etc. Our eyes are the sources of such spiritual infections of our spirits. You cannot lead a victorious life because your heart is not kept away from such pollutions. The issues of life do spring from your heart. The Christian businessmen or the Christian students or the Christian scientists are not able to prosper in this world because their hearts are polluted by what they see or what they hear through their senses. I do not mean "the material prosperity". Prosperity encompasses your spirit, soul and body. You may have material prosperity but may not have spiritual prosperity. A Christian businessman may earn millions but may miss the spiritual prosperity in his life. His business empire may not last long. It may be short-lived. If he, with the help of the Holy Spirit, keeps his heart with all diligence, his business will last long because it is founded on the rock and not on the sand. A Christian student may acquire superfluous knowledge through hard work of study but may miss the goal of perfection in his study because he could not keep his heart with all diligence. A Christian scientist may invent something new which may be accepted in this world but this invention may not bear fruits in the long run because he has not kept his heart with all diligence.

The second saying is that you should put away from you a froward mouth and perverse lips.

Froward means obstinate, wilful, disobedient, fractious, wayward, unmanageable, difficult. We find it difficult to manage our mouth and it becomes wayward or disobedient. At times, we are admonished in a low voice by the Holy Spirit not to speak out certain words but we are quick to speak. By birth, we have inherited a froward mouth. After we have received the Holy Spirit in our life, we do have the greatest privilege of taking the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Many Christian preachers make a boast of what they do for the Lord or how they are used by the Holy Spirit or how the Holy Spirit heard their intercessory prayers and performed miracles. Our Lord Jesus did not have a froward mouth at all. He always glorified His Father and did not glorify Himself. James said in Js.3:7-8, "For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison".

We have to surrender our tongue to the dominion of the Holy Spirit because we cannot tame it. Through perverse lips, we pervert the truth and speak lies. We exaggerate what we have heard. The devil used his froward mouth to tempt Adam in the Garden of Eden. He used his perverse lips to pervert the truth. We always suppress the truth while conversing with others. We think that we are wise by suppressing the truth. Wisdom of God is not revealed through your mouth when you suppress some truth. Many preachers through their froward mouths do not speak the truth to the audience. For example, if the preacher was sick due to some ailment, he would not tell the truth to the audience. If God has blessed him with sufficient funds for his ministry, he does not tell the truth to the public but tells a lie to the public that he needs money for his ministry. When God has not healed the multitudes in his ministry, he always exaggerates his report saying that God has healed or blessed the thousands by publishing some photographs of the thousands who had attended his meetings.

The third saying is that your eyes should look right on. The eyes are the sources of temptation to sin. Through the eyes, you see the Mammon of unrighteousness or the things of this world. The god of this world blinds our eyes so that we may not perceive the great blessings through sufferings. If your eyes have to look right on, you will see only the Crucified Christ before your eyes. If your eyes do not look right on, it means you are being enticed to the things of this world - pride of life, possessions and fame. The ministers of the gospel in the poor Eastern nations who preach the gospel to the lost souls are being enticed to the Mammon of unrighteousness which is offered to them in the affluent Western nations. Once these ministers of the gospel become addicted to this vine, they stop evangelizing the lost souls in their nations and look forward to making trips to the Western nations for gathering funds. The eyes that looked right on in the past have now begun to look sideward’s. The passion for souls is being replaced with the passion for money which they need for "building churches or Bible colleges". Contentment is being replaced with greediness.

Your eyelids also should look straight before you. The eyelids should not look somewhere else. When you are walking in the wilderness, your eyelids should look straight towards the distant destination before you. It should not look back or sideward’s. The world is a wilderness for you. Like the Christian of the Pilgrim's Progress, you have to look straight at the the glorious land before you and should not look back at the city of destruction. Christian ran, crying "Life! Life! Eternal Life! And he looked not behind him. Your eyelids should look straight so that you press towards the high call in Christ Jesus.

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