What Is Your Most Guarded Possession?

What is your most valuable possession? Do you think that you might know your most valuable possession by that which you should guard the most? In other words, what is your most guarded possession? Consider why this is so important…

Notice this familiar Proverb:

Guard your heart above every guarding,
for from it are the sources (fountainhead) of life (Proverbs 4:23, Waltke) [1]

Guard Your Heart Above Every Guarding

Although this statement does not flow well in modern English, Solomon emphasizes guarding the heart above every other kind of guarding. Think about how emphatic this makes this statement. We value many things and guard them as best that we can – various possessions, jewelry, money, and this list goes on. We hire security companies, keep some things in vaults, buy security programs for our computers, and make many efforts to keep our stuff protected.

Solomon replies: Guard your heart above every guarding.

Solomon uses a command here. The verse places the guarding of the heart as the highest priority. When he writes “above every guarding” that means there is no more important guarding that needs to be done than the guarding of the heart.

Why? Because Nothing Else Is More Valuable

Solomon stresses why it is more important to guard the heart above every other kind of guarding: for from it are the sources or fountainhead of life.

This verse refers to the heart as the source or fountain of everything you do in life.

Let me use the illustration of a fountain or spring for a moment. If the fountainhead or source of a spring or artesian well comes out of the ground, anywhere that water goes flows out of that well. If the spring splits into various tributaries, all of those tributaries come back to the one source of the water, its fountainhead.

Solomon, in this text, refers to the heart as the source or fountainhead of all of life. If you go down the tributary of thoughts, the tributary of motives, the tributary of affections, the tributary of emotions, the tributary of the words you use, or the tributary of the things you do, you will find that the source of all of these things in life is your heart.

Jesus said, “From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

To put Jesus’ words a different way, “From the source or fountainhead of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

Be Intentional This Week

As you begin a new day and week, guard your heart above all else.

Are you struggling with your thoughts? Motives? Affections? Emotions? Words? Actions? Then double-down on your heart this week.

The foundation for guarding your heart is the Word of God. You will need to begin with the Bible as the foundation for guarding the heart, as Solomon teaches as well (Prov 4:20-27).

One other self-counsel question… Since whatever you guard the most determines what is most valuable to you, what do you value the most?