Today, we are concluding our devotional series through Puritan John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart. It has been an enlightening walkthrough of how to keep the heart even in life’s hardest seasons. Here is Flavel, concluding his book with these words:
Now, reader, consider well these special benefits of keeping the heart which I have mentioned. Examine their importance. Are they small matters? Is it a small matter to have your understanding assisted? your endangered soul rendered safe? your sincerity proved? your communion with God sweetened? Your heart filled with matter for prayer? Is it a small thing to have the power of godliness? all fatal scandals removed? an instrumental fitness to serve Christ obtained? the communion of saints restored to its primitive glory? and the influence of ordinances abiding in the souls of saints? If these are no common blessings, no ordinary benefits, then surely it is a great and indispensable duty to keep the heart with all diligence.
And now are you inclined to undertake the business of keeping your heart? are you resolved upon it? I charge you, then, to engage in it earnestly. Away with every cowardly feeling, and make up your mind to encounter difficulties. Draw your armor from the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in its commands, its promises, its threatenings; let it be fixed in your understanding, your memory, your conscience, your affections. You must learn to wield the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God) familiarly, if you would defend your heart and conquer your enemies. You must call yourself frequently to an account; examine yourself as in the presence of the all-seeing God; bring your conscience, as it were, to the bar of judgment. Beware how you plunge yourself into a multiplicity of worldly business; how you practise upon the maxims of the world; and how you venture at all to indulge your depraved propensities. You must exercise the utmost vigilance to discover and check the first symptoms of departure from God, the least decline of spirituality, or the least indisposition to meditation by yourself, and holy conversation and fellowship with others. These things you must undertake, in the strength of Christ, with invincible resolution in the outset. And if you thus engage in this great work, be assured you shall not spend your strength for naught; comforts which you never felt or thought of will flow in upon you from every side. The diligent prosecution of this work will constantly afford you the most powerful excitements to vigilance and ardor in the life of faith, while it increases your strength and wears out your enemies. And when you have kept your heart with all diligence a little while; when you have fought the battles of this spiritual warfare, gained the ascendancy over the corruptions within, and vanquished the enemies without, then God will open the gate of heaven to you, and give you the portion which is promised to them that overcome. Awake then, this moment; get the world under your feet; pant not for the things which a man may have, and eternally lose his soul; but bless God that you may have his service here, and the glory hereafter which he appoints to his chosen.
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
This concludes our devotional series. Don’t let your growth end here. Make this duty the defining duty of your life, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. It is the distilled essence of the Christian life: a life uniquely pleasing and holy to God. Your effectiveness as a Christian depends upon keeping the heart: your stability from temptation, fellowship with other believers, growth in wisdom (growing in the fear of the Lord), growth in good works not nullified by your inward wickedness, thankfulness and perseverance regardless of circumstances, effectiveness in prayer (our lifeline), and every other Christian duty. All of these are under the heading of keeping the heart. Do not be deceived! If you do not at all keep the heart, if you are defined by the term “hypocrite” or any other sin, then you will live a life of vanity and hopelessness; it will be devoid of all godliness, meaning, and communion with God and others. Nothing can be more terribly imagined than to reject this keeping of the heart. Indeed, neglecting this duty among the saved is to lay for oneself a life rife with hardship that gives into wickedness, worries, lack of assurance, and terrors from one moment to the next. Neglecting this keeping for the Christian is as one—having been given a sword, armour, and every tool necessary for protection and engaging the enemy—rejecting God’s tools for service, running into battle unprepared and unacquainted with the nature of warfare. While they will ultimately be prevented from ultimate defeat, such a “soldier” will be rendered largely impotent, useless, and vulnerable. Yet, no true believer can ever be without growth in the heart. Even such a one as this will grow into his armour. He cannot be long without using his tools given of God for the victorious life. So, don’t live any longer in the vanity of the world, giving into its ways and serving its evils. Turn to God, and this in all things! Don’t render yourselves impotent by your neglect of this means of grace! Dear Christian, keep the heart. Persevere in it. Live and breath this keeping, and you, by the abundant grace of God, will be made like Christ! No longer coast through your life as if your purpose is fuzzy or confused; as if you can have one foot in the world and one foot in heaven! This cannot last, and either your shame or God’s glory will be made to manifest itself in you. Keep the heart Christian! Let this be the mark of your life. Be the faithful servant commended of the Lord. No longer live in the filthiness of the world, but rather, expose it! Mortify it in yourselves that you may be vessels for noble and holy use! Leave your life of sin and vanity to serve the living God; to truly serve Him according to His own desire and will and not according to some false god who has been recast to suit your own wicked and covetous lusts. Serve the living and true God. Obey His standards by the provision He has given you towards the end for which you were created. Keep the heart Christian!
On a special note, for further reading, there are many other great Puritan works like John Flavel’s. Among the multitude of great books they have written, you may want to consider:
“Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” by Thomas Brooks,
“The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs,
“The Bruised Reed” by Richard Sibbes,
“The Doctrine of Repentance” by Thomas Watson,
“The Mortification of Sin” by John Owen,
“The Mystery of Providence” by John Flavel, and
“The Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter.
Many of these books can be found in print at Heritage Books or Banner of Truth, or in PDF form for free at Digital Puritan (I have been getting PDFs and putting them onto a PDF book reader app). The Puritans offer almost endless reading of rich Christian teaching, and they can help enrich your spiritual life as well, drawing from the depths of Scripture for everyday life.
Here are also some great introductions to the Puritans:
“Meet the Puritans” by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson
“A Puritan Theology” by Joel Beeke and Mark Jones
“Puritan Portraits” by J.I. Packer
God bless, and may you continue being enriched by a treasure trove God has provided for His saints! May you endure and grow in steadfastly keeping the heart, and so please and glorify Him in all things. Amen.