{"id":3035,"date":"2020-04-04T17:07:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T00:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2020-04-07T18:29:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T01:29:54","slug":"hobart-herd-devotional-proverbs-4-4-4-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3035","title":{"rendered":"Hobart Herd Devotional – Proverbs 4 – 4-4-20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hobart Herd Devotional \u2013 Proverbs 4 \u2013\n4-4-20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This chapter in Proverbs is written as a\nfather who passes on wisdom to his child. \nThe son is reminded to never forget the words of wisdom that have been\npassed down to him, but to \u201clet your heart hold fast to my words; keep my\ncommandments, and live.\u201d  I am reminded\nof Psalm 119:11 \u2013 \u201cThy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin\nagainst Thee.\u201d  Somehow keeping God\u2019s\nWord alive, focused and cherished in my heart brings me into His wisdom, guidance\nand blessing.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Probably the most well-known verse in this\nchapter is verse 23.  \u201ckeep your heart\nwith all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.\u201d(ESV)   The\nNASB says to \u201cguard your heart\u201d.  Verse\n24 tells us, \u201cPut away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from\nyou.\u201d  My mind asked the question, what\ndoes \u201cguarding the heart\u201d have to do with my mouth and speech?  Then the Lord reminded me of Jesus\u2019 words in\nMatthew 15 where He reminded His listeners that what came out of the mouth\ndefiled the man not the outward things like failing to ceremonially wash your\nhands.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   When I was in Israel last spring, one of the\nthings I noticed about the Orthodox Jewish people was their total commitment to\ncleansing outwardly and only eating kosher food.  As we are dealing with this COVID 19 virus\ncrisis, we are giving much more consideration to washing our hands and\ncleansing all surfaces.  However, God\ngives us something that checks and guards our hearts, it is the inputting of\nHis Word in our hearts and minds to keep ourselves clean, moral, and righteous\nin our actions.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, one\nway for me to check if I am keeping (guarding) my heart diligently, is to\nlisten and see what comes out of my mouth. \nIf I want the wellspring of God\u2019s goodness to flow in my life, I must\ninput the wisdom of God\u2019s Word so that the outflow of my mouth brings glory and\nhonor to Him.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Father, thank you for Your Word that gives\nme the ability to keep my actions, attitudes and words right before You.  Help me to watch the input into my heart so\nthat I can guard it with the power of Your Spirit and Your Word.  I want the words of my mouth to reflect the\nwork of Your Spirit in my heart.  I know\nI am not perfect and will fail but help my heart to be attentive to Your Spirit\nso that I will recognize when my mouth spouts filth.  May Your Spirit through Your Word be able to\nconvict, warn and correct my heart so that it is guarded and flourishing in\nYour wisdom and truth.  In Jesus Name,\nAmen.  Pastor Rob <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hobart Herd Devotional \u2013 Proverbs 4 \u2013 4-4-20       This chapter in Proverbs is written as a father who passes on wisdom to his child.  The son is reminded to never forget the words of wisdom that have been passed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3036,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}