Guarding your heart will result in protecting all your precious relationships from hurt and pain, especially your marriage. Spouses need to keep their hearts and minds right with God, for only when they are able to keep their hearts will they be able to love their spouses perfectly. Proverbs 4:23 warns us,
"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." (NKJV)
Husbands as Guards
As a husband, I very well know that guarding my heart means protecting my wife from unnecessary hurt and pain, especially those that can come through me. Ephesians 5 tells all husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and boy is that ever hard! But before we think that it's impossible to do it, we men should know that we can actually do it because Christ said,
"Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do also. And he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father" (John 14:12 MEV)
Guys, let's believe that it's not impossible to love our wives the way the Lord loved the church. He promised that we'll be able to do it, especially now that He's interceding for us in heaven and we have the Holy Spirit empowering us to do what God wants us to do.
Practical Ways
To encourage all of you, my fellow husbands, here are some practical ways we can guard our heart and protect our marriage.
1. Be Accountable to God
Friends, we should realise that we can never hide anything from God, who sees everything. Proverbs 15:3 tells us,
"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." (MEV)
Knowing this, let's choose to live in openness before God, acknowledging that we can never keep a secret from Him. He knows what's in our hearts, what we will say before we say it, and what we are longing for. Live in open accountability to God in the fear of the Lord.
2. Decide that Your Wife Will be the Only Woman You Will Desire
This might be difficult for some, but it must be done. Job once declared,
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman" (Job 31:1 NLT)
He declared that he will not look with lust (a passionate or sexual desire) at a woman other than his wife. Seriously. Unless we decide that the only woman we will desire passionately and sexually is the beautiful woman God gave to us to be our very own wife, we might leave our doors open – to our own demise.
3. Enjoy the Wife of Your Youth
I love how the NLT version of Proverbs 5:18 goes,
"Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth."
What better way for men to guard their heart against being tempted by other women than to enjoy their own wife? Friends, aside from the sin-obliterating and temptation-defeating power of the love of God in the cross of Christ, the love of your God-given wife is enough to satisfy your need for a friend, a partner, a companion, a shoulder to cry on, and a person to cheer up and cherish. God meant our marriages to be enjoyable partnerships, not just work relationships meant to have kids. Enjoy your wife!
