Have you ever seen an English castle? Maybe you saw one on a movie about King Arthur, or some other movie or T.V. show (like Bugs Bunny). Picture that castle in your mind. What do you see? The first thing you probably noticed was the wall surrounding the castle, with the big draw bridge door — the only way in or out. And the door lowered over a moat with crocodiles. Some of these castles still exists (maybe without the crocodiles), and they are like museums inside. The outside is impenetrable. It would be almost impossible to defeat someone if they were inside the castle, because it was tough to get through the barriers that protected it.
Proverbs 5:15 tells us to guard our hearts. The idea is to build a wall of protection around your heart, so that nothing or no one can get to it. Over the years I have had several conversations with teenagers about sex, one of the first questions that comes up will be, “How far is too far?” Many times we as people want to know how far we can go and still get away with it. Proverbs wants us to take a different approach. We need to see our heart and soul as valuable and important. Something to protect and guard. We need to realize that the joy and purpose for life flows out of who we are on the inside. It is in the heart (not the blood-pumping organ, but the inner person) where God resides when a person becomes a Christian. The heart is the seat of our emotions and being. So whether you are single or married, young or old, the need to guard your heart is paramount in protecting your spiritual life and well-being.
God wants you to build a fortress around your heart, and keep anything from penetrating. So how do you build this fortress. Here are a few steps.
#1 Make a commitment to God that you will keep your eyes pure. Pornography is a temptation for many people. It’s not tough to find nude people, especially in the movies or on te Internet now. But realize, that each time your eyes see things they shouldn’t see, a little bit of the wall that guards your heart is cracked.
#2 Make a commitment to God to keep your mouth and ears pure. Dirty jokes can be funny. Using sexual and dirty words to talk about people can bet you notoriety. But every time a person allows perverted speech to come out of his or her mouth, or enter his or her ears, a little bit of the wall is cracked, and the enemy is that much closer to getting through.
#3 Make a commitment to God to stay out of tough places. Many a person, with a strong commitment to God has lost their virginity when they went “parking”. Marriages have been broken when one partner “innocently” built developed a relationship with a friend of the opposite gender. We don’t want to be legalistic in our approaches to setting standards, yet, on the other hand, it is a very good idea to have high standards.
Your heart is the most important asset you have. The inner-you is where God lives, and where the real you comes out. It would be a shame to allow Satan to destroy you. Have you built a fortress around your heart?