Celebreate to Guard Your Heart

Lately, I've been praying for my heart to be guarded and some females that I'm around as well as my wife. It's getting that time and I'm excitingly nervous. There are so many awesome beautiful girls here who just love Jesus, but at the same time I know I need to guard my heart and theirs.

My understanding of this was to withdraw. To hide and protect my heart like a treasure where no one can get to or see. Until I read was flipping through my Bible this morning and "guard your heart" stuck out to me...

He is saying to celebrate everything, not hide from it. Enjoy and celebrate everything how God has made it, then your heart will be better guarded.

It doesn't seem to make sense at first, but follow the thought. If you're rejoicing in everything that God has made how He has made it. Your heart is consumed by Him and His pleasure in us, in them, and in His own creation. He gets a kick out of us. He delights in us. How do I know? He created us! Why would He create something He didn't enjoy? Rather creating something He enjoyed, He invites us to celebrate all of it.

When we celebrate all of it, our hearts are flooded by His goodness and this peace that no one can explain comes over us. We realize what grace is to not have to be 100% detail oriented perfect, but instead are empowered by grace to walk in perfection. So we go enjoy Him and His creation (no not worshiping His creation, but worshiping Him through His creation). We enjoy everyone and everything He has created as it shines this hint of glory that captivates all of our senses.

So how are our hearts guarded? Because we've raised the standard of what is enjoyable. If we hide from everything, eventually one thing is going to carry a lot of God's awesomeness in it and it will attract us. If we celebrate everything, we enjoy it all, and our standards are raised even higher, expecting more of God, and celebrating and building up everyone we're around.  C.S. Lewis explained this idea in his book, "Weight of Glory."

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

So may you today be captivated and enjoy to celebrate everything, rather than trying to hide from the creation He made for you to enjoy. Celebrate everything. Give heartfelt thanks. Keep praying for what you deeply desire and you'll have unexplainable peace and your heart will be guarded. Go enjoy.