Last time, we looked at Flavel’s explanation of Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life.” He explained that keeping the heart is the chief duty of the believer, and what the heart is from the Bible (the heart pertains to the decision-making and will). Today we will be looking at six principles that we need to know for keeping the heart fixed upon God.
Flavel begins with a great summary and why keeping the heart is so desperately needed as a Christian duty:
To keep the heart, necessarily supposes a previous work of regeneration, which has set the heart right, by giving it a new spiritual inclination, for as long as the heart is not set right by grace as to its habitual frame, no means can keep it right with God. Self is the poise of the unrenewed heart, which biases and moves it in all its designs and actions; and as long as it is so, it is impossible that any external means should keep it with God.
Man, originally, was of one constant, uniform frame of spirit, held one straight and even course; not one thought or faculty was disordered: his mind had a perfect knowledge of the requirements of God, his will a perfect compliance therewith; all his appetites and powers stood in a most obedient subordination.
Man, by the apostacy, is become a most disordered and rebellious creature, opposing his Maker, as the First Cause, by self-dependence; as the Chief Good, by self-love; as the Highest Lord, by self-will; and as the Last End, by self-seeking. Thus he is quite disordered, and all his actions are irregular. But by regeneration the disordered soul is set right; this great change being, as the Scripture expresses it, the renovation of the soul after the image of God, in which self-dependence is removed by faith; self-love, subjection and obedience to the will of God; self-seeking, by self-denial. The darkened understanding is illuminated, the refractory will sweetly subjected, the rebellious appetite gradually conquered. Thus the soul which sin had universally depraved, is by grace restored. This being pre-supposed, it will not be difficult to apprehend what it is to keep the heart, which is nothing but the constant care and diligence of such a renewed man to preserve his soul in that holy frame to which grace has raised it. For though grace has, in a great measure, rectified the soul, and given it a habitual heavenly temper; yet sin often actually discomposes it again; so that even a gracious heart is like a musical instrument, which though it be exactly tuned, a small matter brings it out
of tune again; yea, hang it aside but a little, and it will need setting again before another lesson can be played upon it. If gracious hearts are in a desirable frame in one duty, yet how dull, dead, and disordered when they come to another! Therefore every duty needs a particular preparation of the heart. “If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward him. . .” To keep the heart then, is carefully to preserve it from sin, which disorders it; and maintain that spiritual frame which fits it for a life of communion with God. This includes in it six particulars.”
Keeping the heart is a duty that only a Christian can do in Christ. Pursuing self is the opposite, which characterizes nonbelievers. Before the Fall, humanity was living in perfect harmony with God. Yet, when Adam sinned, man’s heart turned away from God and after self-dependence, self-love, self-will, and self-seeking. That is why the unbelieving heart is so wicked. In Christ, we have been given the solution to all of those evils: faith, submission to God, self-denial, and illumination. Having been saved then, made into a new creation, it is now our duty to keep our hearts fixed on God, which is no simple task. We are in a battle for the heart against wickedness, working to mortify our sin until the day we die. Flavel’s six principles on keeping the heart can aid us in this battle:
Frequent observation of the frame of the heart. Carnal and formal persons take no heed to this; they cannot be brought to confer with their own hearts: there are some people who have lived forty or fifty years in the world, and have had scarcely one hour’s discourse with their own hearts. It is a hard thing to bring a man and himself together on such business; but saints know those soliloquies to be very salutary. The heathen could say, “the soul is made wise by sitting still in quietness.” Though bankrupts care not to look into their accounts, yet upright hearts will know whether they go backward or forward. “I commune with mine own heart,” says David. The heart can never be kept until its case be examined and understood.
In other words, we need to learn what our hearts yearn for, when we are weak to temptation, what the roots of our behaviour are: why we do what we do and when. When we know the waywardness of our hearts, we can then move to subject the wickedness of our hearts to God.
It includes deep humiliation for heart evils and disorders; thus Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. Thus the people were ordered to spread forth their hands to God in prayer, realizing the plague of their own hearts. Upon this account many an upright heart has been laid low before God; ‘O what a heart have I.’ Saints have in their confession pointed at the heart, the pained place: ‘Lord here is the wound.’ It is with the heart well kept, as it is with the eye; if a small dust get into the eye it will never cease twinkling and watering till it has wept it out: so the upright heart cannot be at rest till it has wept out its troubles and poured out its complaints before the Lord.
This involves humbling ourselves before God, recognizing the true evils of our hearts and our desperate need for His strength. Upon examining our hearts and finding evil, we are to bring it to God daily. With our consciences sharpened against the evils of our heart, we come to yearn and mortify that evil, not resting until we bring it before God and exercise it. This is the key to sanctification. We focus on loving God and mortifying sin, which leads to humility and growth.
It includes earnest supplication and instant prayer for purifying and rectifying grace when sin has defiled and disordered the heart. “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” “Unite my heart to fear thy name.” Saints have always many such petitions before the throne of God's grace; this is the thing which is most pleaded by them with God. When they are praying for outward mercies, perhaps their spirits may be more remiss; but when it comes to the heart's case, they extend their spirits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep and make supplication: ‘O for a better heart! O for a heart to love God more; to hate sin more; to walk more; evenly with God. Lord! deny not to me such a heart, whatever thou deny me: give me a heart to fear thee, to love and delight in thee, if I beg my bread in desolate places.’ It is observed of an eminent saint, that when he was confessing sin, he would never give over confessing until he had felt some brokenness of heart for that sin; and when praying for any spiritual mercy, would never give over that suit till he had obtained some relish of that mercy.
The prayer life of the Christian is to reflect keeping the heart with the highest gravity. Physical and circumstantial issues are to be subjected towards serving the end of keeping our hearts fixed upon God. People who pay too much attention to their ailments and circumstances have their hearts fixed upon those things, and not upon God. Rather, we are to pursue to the utmost what God desires to see within ourselves: a heart wholly fixed upon Him. All other good in us comes from our heart. When our hearts are sick, all the rest of our prayers are weakened and our actions ineffective in God’s work. The heart is the root and the rest is the fruit.
It includes the imposing of strong engagements upon ourselves to walk more carefully with God, and avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin. Well advised and deliberate vows are, in some cases, very useful to guard the heart against some special sin. “I have made a covenant with mine eyes,” says Job. By this means holy men have overawed their souls, and preserved themselves from defilement.
Putting ways for accountability to other believers and to God is a great way to keep the heart. Find out when you are weak, and what you are weak to. Plan ways to protect yourself from temptation. Flee from it before it comes. Plan your life jealously for God.
It includes a constant and holy jealousy over our own hearts. Quicksighted self-jealousy is an excellent preservative from sin. He that will keep his heart, must have the eyes of the soul awake and open upon all the disorderly and tumultuous stirrings of his affections; if the affections break loose, and the passions be stirred, the soul must discover it, and suppress them before they get to a height. ‘O my soul, dost thou well in this? My tumultuous thoughts and passions, where is your commission?’ Happy is the man that thus feareth always. By this tear of the Lord it is that men depart from evil, shake off sloth, and preserve themselves from iniquity. He that will keep his heart must eat and drink with fear, rejoice with fear, and pass the whole time of his sojourning here in fear. All this is little enough to keep the heart from sin.
We must train ourselves to have holy jealousy for God. We must be jealous for His honor and glory in our lives, which means guarding our minds. When temptation comes, that jealousy will move to stamp it out before it can be entertained. Fearing God drives away evil. This fear refers to revering God to the utmost, whereby our lives become His vessels for noble use. He is always watching us, and we must serve Him in that light.
It includes the realizing of God's presence with us, and setting the Lord always before us. This the people have found a powerful means of keeping their hearts upright, and awing them from sin. When the eye of our faith is fixed upon the eye of God's omniscience, we dare not let out our thoughts and affections to vanity. Holy Job durst not suffer his heart to yield to an impure, vain thought, and what was it that moved him to so great circumspection? He tells us, “Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?”
When we are tempted after other things, we must be diligent to remember that He is always before us. As we grow in the fear of the Lord, this realization changes our response to sin. Our Lord and Master, to Whom we owe the love of our whole heart, is ever-present. We are never alone, and nothing can ever be hidden from Him.
In such particulars as these do gracious souls express the care they have of their hearts. They are careful to prevent the breaking loose of the corruptions in time of temptation; careful to preserve the sweetness and comfort they have got from God in any duty. This is the work, and of all works in religion it is the most difficult, constant, and important work.
If we come to apply all of these principles, we will go a long way to keeping our hearts fixed upon God. He will honour our efforts as we strive for godliness, like all of the apostles and saints before us. Next time we will be looking at why, as Flavel said, “Christians must make this the great business of their lives.” May we strive to keep our hearts fixed on Him. Amen.