GUARD YOUR HEART
Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
I've had an interesting series of things happen to me over the last several years. It's sad, but also very odd. The final thing happened a few years ago while driving across South Dakota. The speed limit is 80 mph on hwy 80 where we were and I was right on the limit. I noticed something above and to the left of me and looked up. I saw a duck gliding down quickly as if to land smack dab on the interstate. I couldn't swerve safely so I held my course. That goofy duck dove right down and hit the bumper of my pickup truck.
A few years earlier I had an owl come flying across a field for over ¼ mile and purposely turn into the drivers side door of the same truck, taking off three chrome letters from the side... what used to be a Chevy "Silverado" is now just a "ado". I once had a giant buzzard fly up from the side of the road and turn abruptly into the windshield of our vehicle. Grouse, blackbirds and others (even a bald eagle) have for some reason attempted to sacrificed themselves to my vehicles over the years, most of them looked as if they purposely flew into me. It's as if they saw something attractive and it cost them dearly.
I can relate to this situation in life, as most of have. We see something attractive and even though we know it's dangerous and wrong, we get too close. Or worse yet, we dive right in and before we know it we are in big trouble.
In Genesis 3:6 we read about Eve and the original human sin. She was attracted to the fruit, its beauty, it's taste and it's power (at least her perception). She wasn't attracted to the sin itself, but the object that led to the sin.
In Joshua 7 we can read of Achan who saw gold and silver, that was meant for God, was attracted by it and gave into the temptation and stole it. And like the birds that seem to be attracted by my vehicles, it meant death in the end. Achan wasn't attracted by the sin, no, he was attracted by the silver and gold. Sin was a result of Achan giving into his desire.
Each of us is attracted by those things that aren't right, like Eve, like Achan and many others in the bible. It's not the items that cause us to sin, but instead our desire and our weakness.
Satan knows our desires and our weaknesses and will play them against us. We must be on guard 100% of the time because if we let our guard down and move towards the attractive things in life, the things that are not meant for us, we will pay a big price. Some prices we pay will last a lifetime and sometimes the price we pay is with our life.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to be on guard. "23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." In another translation the heart is called, "the wellspring".
I've spent a lot of time in the mountains where there are a lot of springs bubbling up from the ground. These springs form small pools and the pools pour out and form streams, which form rivers which flow for many miles. If you plug the springs the rivers dry up and die. If you were to poison the springs it would eventually kill off all life downstream. We must protect our hearts (our wellsprings) from the attractiveness of sin, for if we don't, it will cause pain and death to everything else that we do.
So each time we see something that appears attractive but we know is sinful and dangerous turn and run from it. For if we run to it, we stand the chance of paying a big price or even death.
Guard your heart.
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