Guarding the Well

In Africa when a hunter wants rest and not worry about being eaten by lions, they build a hedge row around them of thorns. The Lions are unable to get through the hedge row without inflicting great personal damage. As a result, the hunter inside the hedge can rest in the security of knowing that they are safe from attack.

The bible says that “above all else, guard your heart because it is the well spring of life”. During the 1980’s the Ford Motor Company had a slogan “Quality is Job #1”. It meant that of all the things they do the first and most important job is quality. They believed that of all their problems, if they could get this one right, many other problems would simply vanish. In a manor of thinking they believed that quality was their well spring of life. This philosophy paid off for Ford and their products got better and their sales took off.

The writer of Proverbs tells us that “above all else”. In this statement God is telling us that guarding your heart is Job #1 – above all else. Why is this so vital? Because, the verse goes on to say, the heart is the well spring of life. The heart is where the Holy Spirit lives. The heart is our soul. The heart either contains life or death and from it everything comes. It is the source or the beginning of thoughts and actions. Born from it are all the fruit our lives produce. When the heart is poisoned, no fruit is born and what fruit does proceed out is also poisoned.

The enemy is trying to poison your well. The Bible says that the enemy is like a lion seeking whom he may devour. He wants nothing more than to poison your well. He is doing a great job. Today we see non-stop images of lust, greed and a whole array of sensual pleasures that are designed to appeal to your sinful nature. These images and ideas are poisonous to a soul that craves the presence of God. It draws us away from Him and it puts the focus of life on us. Over time our defenses are broken down and we become ravaged by the enemy. He has his way with us and we become defeated and trapped in the prison of our own selfish desires. The writer of Proverbs tells us that a man without self control is like a city whose walls have been broken down.

God has grace if you find yourself here. The road to a purified well will be rough and painful, but you will survive and even thrive. Build a hedge around your well so that the enemy cannot get to it to do anymore damage. The eyes are the window to the soul. Protect your eyes from images that promote things that are not eternal. God can and will restore that which has been lost. He will cleans your heart and soul and make it pure again.

Seek out an accountability partner. Someone you can trust who you can enter into a covenant relationship with. Two are better than one. When two stand back to back, no enemy can attack unseen. If you are married, you already have such a person in your spouse. The marriage ceremony is a covenant between husband and wife. Husband and wife should work together to keep the guard up. Your mutual job is to guard each other’s well, to insure that it is properly tended to and protected.

Guarding the well is job #1.

Paradox - A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true

In Rick Warren’s best selling book “The Purpose Driven Life” the first sentence in the book reads: “It’s not about you.”. And although I believe this to be true to an extent, I believe that at a profound level that indeed it is ALL about you. God created you for a purpose. Your ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God. I take this to mean that He wants to determine if you will choose to pursue Him and His ways or your own selfish pursuits. So, in that light, it is in fact all about you. What will you do? So what was Rick Warren talking about?

When you step on the path to pursue God, you will find out soon enough that He wants you to love others and that He equates this to loving Him. He wants you to think of them as better than yourself. He wants you to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick, and seek justice for the oppressed and the marginalized. He wants you to give to the poor and be father to the fatherless. To sum it all up, He wants us to lay our lives down to save others in the same way that Jesus did. When you are in pursuit of God, this is what He calls us to. In this respect it is about others and not about you, but to get there you must FIRST deny yourself, pick up your cross and walk in Jesus’ footsteps. On the road to the cross your first battle is with yourself. You must fight your own will that wants to live for self. This is not a battle fought once and for all. It is a battle that will continue until the Day of Judgment. In order to have fruit in your life, you must win this battle with self daily, hourly and every second. Until you can win there, you cannot serve others. If you cannot serve others you cannot please God. Therefore, it is ALL about you. Paradoxes are cool.