Devotionals From John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart By Guest Author Andrew Kuefler
“Keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life.”
-Proverbs 4:23
In our culture, we so often hear the refrain, “follow your heart.” That is the guiding principle by which many orient their lives. Is this a good pursuit for the Christian? And what does the Bible mean by the “heart”? Many are familiar with the Greatest Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength” (Deut. 6:5), but what does that mean? The Puritan, John Flavel, saw the need for teaching his congregation the importance and place of the heart in the Christian Faith. In fact, he wrote a book on the subject titled, Keeping the Heart: A Treatise on Keeping the Heart (1840). In the coming weeks, we will be going over his book with the aim towards doing just that: keeping the heart fixed on loving Him.
Flavel has a very good way of describing the biblical meaning of the heart, and he puts our duty in keeping the heart into perspective (which he bases on Prov. 4:23). He said,
The heart of man is his worst part before it be regenerated, and the best afterward; it is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it. The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate of heaven a strait gate.
Much is happening here. Jeremiah 17:9a says that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (ESV). That is the state of all hearts before we are saved (“regenerated”). They are inclined only to evil and to reject the ways of God. Such a heart cannot love God or neighbor, as both require God pouring His love into our hearts (loving God and neighbor are characteristically Godward, meaning that only the saved can love in this way). And it is this pouring of love into our hearts through regeneration (making us a new creation in Christ) that then makes our hearts the best part afterwards.
What, then, is the heart? The heart is not the seat of the emotions (the Hebrew word for “bowels” refers to that), but refers to all of our decision-making and will. It is the disposition of our entire selves, which, before salvation, is inclined only to do evil, and, afterwards, is inclined towards godliness. This is why Proverbs 3:5-7 speaks of the heart as that which trusts, understands, and pertains to decision-making, growing in wisdom, and applying the fear of the Lord:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (HCSB).
The words of that exhortation are all about “keeping the heart” fixed on God above all else. As Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life.” Yes, our heart is, as Flavel describes, “the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions.” It is from the heart that all of our behaviours, decisions, principles, actions, and values come. This is why simply modifying our behaviour can never deal with sin or cure us from sicknesses of the heart. The heart is the source of our behaviour, and it is thus the heart that we must endeavour with all our might to keep right with God (Paul says that we are to strive to keep our hearts right with God, and that the Holy Spirit is given to us to aid in this as we diligently apply His Word). Yes, the Greatest and most supreme commandment is that we are to love God with all our hearts. That is, we are to love Him in all our decision-making and will, obeying all of His commandments from the inside (not merely external obedience). “The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon [the heart].” Jeremiah 17:10a says, “I the Lord search the heart,” and 1 Samuel 16:7b, “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (ESV). When God looks at us as believers, what he principally looks for are hearts that seek after Him and His ways. And it is transforming our hearts that is God’s will for us: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 5:3). Sanctification is our increasing growth into Christlikeness (conforming to embody biblical commands), which is our growth in loving God with our heart.
What does Flavel mean when he said, “The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate of heaven a strait gate”? Changing our heart is impossible for any man to do, which is why only God can change them. We have no power to do this ourselves. This is why Ezekiel’s prophecy was so important, which was fulfilled at Pentecost: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” The believing heart is now not resistant to God and His ways (like stone), but malleable, to be trained in righteousness (flesh, softened to obey God’s ways). Yet, our hearts still tend to shift away from God and towards all sorts of idols (anything that takes the place of God in our lives) that compete for our affections. And it is for this reason that Flavel has written his book: to keep our hearts focused principally upon God; for here, as the Bible teaches, “lies the very force and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate of heaven a strait gate.” Yes, brothers and sisters, keeping our heart (decision-making and will) fixed upon God is our chief duty, and this is what we will be looking at in the following weeks.