Guard your Heart in that Relationship:

Guard your Heart in that Relationship:

Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Now, guarding your heart is not about being recklessly available; it is about being thoughtfully vulnerable. You can’t just put up walls around your heart. You have to be open to the world. You have to be vulnerable in order to love. If you are not vulnerable, you can’t love anything completely and fully. In order to do that, it simply means we have got to communicate openly, understanding that the possibility of being hurt is there. Getting hurt or disappointed when your relationship fails is part of life! And you cannot always prevent “hurt” we cannot always prevent the fact that we will have feelings for someone.

But we can control how we act on those feelings and in that way, we can guard our hearts, because guarding your heart means to protect yourselves from "regrets"!  And you can easily avoid "regrets" by the self-control you practice now ... emotionally and obviously physically as well.  Don't give parts of your heart or physical signs of affection away in a relationship that you are not yet certain of.

In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul tells us that prayer is the pathway to guarding our hearts and minds with the peace of God. Peace comes as a comfort rooted in our trust in God that is expressed in the process of prayer. So, guarding your heart is the result of clear communication. The key to guarding your heart is to talk to God about the relationship before you talk to the other person about the relationship.

Guarding your heart doesn’t merely involve protecting yourself from too much intimacy with someone of the opposite sex. It is so much more than this! It’s a call to protect your character in all that you do. Unless you catch this kind of vision for why you need to guard your heart, it will remain a legalistic endeavor in your life.

We have all had our share of failed relationships and not all of these failed relationships were mistakes. Some were simply the result of mismatched souls. However painful some could have been there was no one to blame, some were the clear result of foolishness. The only way we can avoid this ever happening again is when we learn to guard our hearts.

When do hearts become unguarded?

Hearts become unguarded when you move too fast in the relationship–becoming too vulnerable too quickly. You must lay a foundation of friendship before building a house of intimacy.

Hearts become unguarded when you are not seeking God’s desires for the relationship. Instead of depending on your own understanding and priorities for the relationship, you must seek God’s heart.

Hearts become unguarded when there is poor communication about the relationship. This can include poor communication with God in prayer or poor communication with the other person in discussion. If you are too afraid to talk to either of them about an aspect of your relationship, then you probably shouldn’t be involved in it.

Good luck my peeps!