20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
Reflection
We’ll be talking about truth during the next couple of devotionals. Rather than using the CEB version I used the NIV version because it uses heart, rather than mind, in verse 23. Which leads me to one of my friends, though I’ve never met him. His name is Dave, and I felt a kindred, brotherly spirit towards him.
Dave is sort of a cave man. He doesn’t have air conditioning, a computer or even cable or satellite TV. But he does make use of his phone, and we talk usually once a week, sometimes more. Eventually, he got an email address, which is good because those conversations tend to be much shorter than the phone calls.
Anyway, Dave has some sort of tremendous memory and can recall the lyrics of any song from the 60s, 70s, and maybe 80s. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but he’s always quoting songs and occasionally asks me to look one up.
I took him up on one recently, Don Henley’s The Heart Of The Matter.
Henley was a founding member of the Eagles. Henley and the Apostle Paul had the same attitude about dealing with anger. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
And Henley wrote, “There are people in your life who’ve come and gone. They let you down, you know they’ve hurt your pride. You better put it behind you; cause life goes on. You keep carryin’ that anger, it’ll eat you up inside baby.”
Paul’s reason for the admonition is dealing with anger was to keep Satan from using it against us. Paul preceded his statement by saying, “In your anger do not sin.”
When we hold a grudge, we do more damage to ourselves than the object of our wrath. It has eaten up so many people.
Henley’s solution is the same as Paul’s. It’s the heart of the matter:
“I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter. But everything changes and my friends seem to scatter. But I think it’s about forgiveness. Forgiveness. Even if, even if you don’t love me.”
We can’t control how folks will view or treat us or whether they love us or hate us. But if we hold a grudge, we are only harming ourselves. The heart of the matter.
Paul closed the fourth chapter with, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Once again, the heart of the matter.
We can’t make everybody love us or treat us right. But it should be enough that God loves us and more importantly forgave us in Christ.
I’d been dealing with some people issues when I first wrote this. But the heart of the matter in this case is forgiveness. Always forgiveness.
Thanks Don. And thanks Dave.
by Rick Reed
For Pondering and Prayer
Good things happen when we stay connected to God. When we have the heart of the matter. Heart, real heart, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Prayer: My Lord, as always, please help me to keep my head when things are troubling my heart. And help me to know you are always listening. And loving. And forgiving. Amen.
