I am amazed at the amount of adults who stop following Christ. I’m not talking about people who tried Christianity for a few weeks or months but those who walked with Him for years. I’m speaking of committed, spiritual people who, after they’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good for a decade or more, slowly drifted away. You may be thinking that can’t happen, can it?

 

Look up a guy named Demus in your Bible! Solomon also fit that description. He trusted God to be his strength, his wisdom, and his refuge. He enjoyed the fruit of God’s blessings like no one in history. But he forgot to fear God. He forgot to remain obedient. He forgot to guard his mind.

 

Solomon’s worldview drifted from the rock-solid absolutes of scripture to the world of feelings, the worldview of the pagans around him. He forgot to guard his heart. From the wisest man to ever walk the face of the earth to the most disillusioned, Solomon became one of history’s most pathetic characters.

 

I wonder how many of the dead who strayed and paid would love to call back from death and plead with us to live differently. God afforded Solomon such an opportunity through His recorded word as one who walked with, as well as strayed from, God. He is the author of many proverbs, now his voice reverberates down through the ages with lessons from his own indiscretions, ones that left him in mental and moral pain. He says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

 

Solomon knew that the place the enemy would attack would be the heart (mind). The devil plots to conform your mind to the pattern of this world. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy” (Col. 2:8). Solomon knew his own mind had been left unguarded. He lived in the ashes of a ruined life. He warns us from the grave. Have you been guarding your heart? Or do you live by your feelings? Pity the people who leave their minds unguarded, for many of them will stop following Christ.

 

If you have left your heart unguarded, quickly post a watchmen at the gate to your mind. Hear the words of the one who knows “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

 

In His Service,

Eric Barnes