“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).

The above translation is not helpful. When we read “guard your heart” we think God is telling us to be careful about our feelings or emotions. But, that’s not what the Jews meant by the heart. For us, the heart is the place of emotions and feelings. But for the Jews, the heart was the place of the will and thoughts. The heart, for the Jew, was a lot like our brains.

What God is asking us to do is to guard our thoughts, for from our thoughts everything flows from it.

I have been convicted about this particularly when it comes to how I speak to myself. I say things to myself that I would never say to another person:

• You are so stupid!
• That was so dumb…You’re an idiot!

Yikes! I would never say that to anyone. And, yet, I say things like that to myself all the time.

Guard your thoughts. This is not helpful.

So, how do you guard your thoughts?

Ask yourself two questions:

• Does this harm me?
• Does this help me?

Guard yourself from thoughts that harm, thoughts that push you further away from God.

Be kind to yourself. Guard your thoughts for it is from your thoughts and what you say to yourself that everything flows from it.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

Did you see what Jesus did there? He snuck in persecutions. That wasn’t in the original list.

It is impossible to read the New Testament without seeing that persecution is par for the course for the Christian.

One of the Christianese phrases that irk me is “The safest place to be is in the center of the will of God.”

A couple of reasons why this phrase bothers me.

• This wasn’t true for Jesus. Jesus was absolutely in the center of the will of God and it led him straight to the cross.
• This wasn’t true for the disciples or the early church. They were in the center of the will of God and all of them were persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death for their faith in Jesus.

But, perhaps, the reason why this phrase irks me is because of the way our modern world understands the word “safe.” For us, safe means free from harm, risk, and danger. The carefree life.

Safe doesn’t always mean free from harm, risk and danger. Safe can also mean the best, most correct. Let me give you an example.

Corrie ten Boom’s sister, Betsie, was encouraging her with this hope while in Ravensbruck concentration camp. For Corrie and Betsie, the promise of safety in the center of God’s will was fleshed out in concentration camps during the Nazi holocaust of the Jews. And although Corrie lived to tell the story, Betsie died in the midst of it.

Clearly neither of them concluded that this expression conveyed a belief that God would keep them from suffering hardship and even death. Betsie’s statement was a declaration that to walk in the character of Christ is always the right choice, regardless of outcome or consequence.

The original call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: “Follow me.” He wants us to surrender our lives to him and follow him into the unknown. And if it means a life of suffering, hardship, and disappointment, it will be worth it because following Jesus is more powerful and more fulfilling than living with everything in the world minus him.

We understand clearly that we follow the God who chose the way of the Cross. If Jesus would not avoid the “place of the skull,” then we should not be surprised where he might lead us. If even he found Himself sweating blood at Gethsemane, then we should be certain we will stand at crisis moments where all we can do after asking for relief is declare, “Not my will, but Yours.”

Betsie ten Boom, as she lay dying in Ravensbruck concentration camp, turned to her sister Corrie and said, “We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been there.

Betsie, you are right. You are correct.

“It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High” (Psalm 91:1).

Why do Christians sing praises?

Why do we sing hymns or praise songs at church?

Is it to get us in the right mood to worship and listen to God’s word?

For new Christians and new people exploring the faith, the singing bit is one of the most awkward things about worship. In no other contexts do people collectively just bust out in song. Well, actually people do that in concerts when their favorite song is played. But that’s for a different day.

For this day I want us to explore the reason why we sing praises to God in worship.

First, it is because God is worthy. If there is anyone in the universe that is worthy of our worship and praise it is God. God wouldn’t have to do anything and God is worthy of praise. You know why? Because he is God!

But, not only is he worthy of praise because he is God, but our God is worthy of our praise because he is such an awesome, gracious, loving, forgiving, kind God. He doesn’t have to be. He could be anything he wants and he is still God, and as God is worthy of praise. But he is our God and our God is awesome!

Our God is absolutely worthy of praise.

Second reason why the church sings praise songs is because it is a form of spiritual warfare. Satan hates it when we praise God. Satan hates it when God’s people sing praise to God because we are most fully who we were created to be when we worship God. Satan hates that.

So, you know what we do every time we gather to worship? We praise God.

Yup. The psalmist had it right. “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High.”