Guard Your Heart

The Christian must guard his heart daily. We are constantly being bombarded with other things to love. We are tempted to love the world's pleasures. We are tempted to love the things we can see, the things that we wish we had. We are tempted to love the attitude of the world, the adoration of ourselves and our hopes and dreams. We are tempted to love temporal things--be they people or objects. We are tempted to love those areas where we excel, those characteristics or skills that we possess that make people admire us. All those loves are betrayals. They are spiritual adultery. The preeminent love of our life must be our Savior, our Bridegroom. There is no greater sin than the betrayal of unconditional, pure love--the love that God has for us. It is the rejection of God's love that sends men and women into a Christless eternity. And yet, we who are Christians, who have experienced the transformational power of such love, so often choose another lover--reject that same love. We have an impure love. Our intimacy with God is broken. We are unfaithful "brides."
And what is God's response? He prods us with the indwelling Spirit to cleanse ourselves and return to His embrace. And when we confess our sin--our unfaithfulness--He cleanses us of all our sin renewing a right heart within us. And even if we deny our sin, call Him a liar, He stands before the Father claiming eternal forgiveness for that sin, sin that He paid for with His life.
Such love, if we fully comprehend it, should not cause us to be apathetic toward our Lover. It should not cause us to take our sin lightly. It should cause us to passionately love Him back, purely, and with an undivided heart. It should cause us to begin each day with a simple but fervent prayer: "Lord, guard my heart today. Let me walk in love and purity. Let me this day be your faithful bride."