23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

 24 Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

 26 Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.

 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.  (ESV)

The battlefield of the believer is in the heart and mind; it’s not a geographical location, on the job, at school, etc. It’s not against other people either.

v23. The term “keep” used here is a military term. It has the idea of standing guard. We are to guard our hearts and minds and to “…take every thought captive to obey Christ…” (2 Cor 10:5)

We protect our material possessions–we should take even more care to protect our hearts and minds. WE ARE IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…” (2 Cor 10:3-5)

Hide the Word of God in your heart to assist in guarding your heart. When a security alarm is breached, there’s a signal. Hiding the Word in our hearts helps make us sensitive when our thoughts wander where they shouldn’t.

Remember Eve and the serpent (Genesis ch. 3)– the enemy got her thoughts on to something that God had forbidden. He planted an idea of doubt about the goodness of God and an idea of something better outside of God’s will. “Did God actually say….?”– he planted doubt about the Word of God. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…” –he tempted Eve to doubt God’s goodness and His good intentions for them.

There is a progression in the passage of Proverbs 4:23-27 — Heart, mouth, eyes, feet. A guarded heart and a guided heart leads to:

• a moral mouth v.24
• established eyes v.25
• faithful feet v.26-27

Jesus tells us in Matthew ch. 15 “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ”  Evil comes out of our hearts.