«　WEEK 10　DAY 4　»

　　Prov. 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the issues of life.

　　Matt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

　　The relationship that we have with God first depends on the heart, because the heart is the very organ by which we express ourselves and by which we make decisions to receive or reject things….The main entrance of a building is its guard, controlling what should remain outside and what should come in. In the same way, our heart is our guard. It is the entrance into ourselves. Whatever goes out or comes in does so through our heart. There is at least one verse in the Scriptures that tells us this. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, / For from it are the issues of life.” This can also be translated “Guard your heart.” The issues of life are the flowing out of life. By this verse we can realize that the heart is the entrance, the guard, of our whole being. We believe in the Lord Jesus, but by what organ do we believe? It is by the heart (Rom. 10:10), because the heart is the organ that we use to make a decision, to reject or receive something. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life,” p. 459)

　　Ezekiel 36:26 says that at the time of our conversion, God renewed our heart. In God’s salvation, in His way of conversion, the first part within us that He recovered and touched was not the spirit but the heart; then the spirit follows. In verse 26 there is first the heart and then the spirit. The heart is the first thing God must deal with and touch. The first thing we touch when we come to a building is the entrance; we have to find a way to get through the entrance. In the same way, God must deal with us to open an entrance to Himself. What is the entrance? It is the heart. When God comes to deal with us, it is first to deal with our heart.

　　We have the fellowship of life, the sense of life, and the law of life within, and we have the anointing of the Triune God within us. However, this requires our cooperation, and our cooperation depends first on the heart. We speak much about the exercise of the spirit. This is good, but before we learn how to exercise our spirit, we must learn how to deal with our heart—to be renewed in our mind, to have a loving emotion, to be right in our conscience, and to have a soft will.

　　If we deal with our mind, emotion, conscience, and will, we will have a proper heart, and it will be a useful entrance for God. We will have a good dealing with the Lord, and we will allow Him to have the ground and the way to deal with us in a proper way. Then we will have the Triune God within us as life and the anointing. This requires our cooperation…. Put all this into practice. Practice to be clear in your mind, love the Lord with your emotion, have a right conscience, and be softened in your will. The only way to do this is by praying. We need to go to the Lord to pray, “Lord, give me a clear mind, an understanding heart.” The prayer in Song of Songs 1:4, “Draw me; we will run after you,” is a prayer for a loving heart. We also have to pray, “Lord, give me a loving heart toward You and emotions that love only You.” We also must pray for this, and also pray for our conscience to be right. Then when we pray, we will see that our will is not only hardened but stubborn, so we need to pray for our will to be softened.

　　What does it mean for a person to have a pure heart? It is these four matters—the mind is clear, the emotion is loving, the conscience is right, and the will is soft. This kind of heart is a pure and right heart. It is a proper heart. We all need to deal with our heart in this way. We need such a heart, so we must pray for this. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life,” pp. 459-460, 464-465)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1970, vol. 1, “The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us,” chs. 6-9; CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross,” chs. 1-5