Some topics are quite hard to grasp; to really wrap your mind around. A few things I put in that category are heaven, the universe, and the human heart. We know the heart mainly as an extremely vital organ. Just 18 days after conception, the human heart begins its work. In an average lifetime it will beat over 2 billion times, without ever pausing!
A good workout strengthens your heart and lungs, increases blood flow to your muscles, and ultimately helps your heart work more efficiently. I definitely want to help my heart be more efficient! I want to keep it pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout my body for a very long time! "Please, how can I can help you?!" is what I'm thinking. Well, if you asked your heart the same question, it would tell you, "Exercise, eat healthy, and stay away from things that make me work harder, like smoke, drugs, alcohol, anger, and bitterness."
Well, ok, those last two I added in. You won't find that listed in any mainstream publication. But I would venture to say that "keeping your heart with all diligence" is just as important as those other recommendations, "for out of it spring the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)
Did you know that the Proverbs were written by the wisest man who ever lived? Solomon wrote the Proverbs as a guideline to his sons for how they should live their life. He was passing on what he thought was vitally important for a prosperous life.
My favorite dictionary, Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, defines heart as "the chief part; the vital part; the vigorous or efficacious part." When you see the word "heart" in the Bible, hundreds of times, this is what it is referring to, and this is what Solomon is referring to when he speaks of the heart throughout the Proverbs.
As a side note: Have you noticed how convenient it is that there are 31 chapters in Proverbs? One for each day of the month.
Let us ponder what it means to keep our heart with all diligence. The implications this proverb leaves us are many, both on a physical and spiritual level.
"My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 7:1-3
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