Keep the keep

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. – Proverbs 4v23

Castles are great. I love visiting them whether fancy and complete and kept up, or in ruins.

Castles had a purpose. They developed around the ‘keep’ which was basically a fortified home. As time went on the keep became the command centre of the rest of the castle. That is where the nobility lived and where the treasures were stored. It was truly the heart of the castle.

The keep was the heart of the castle complex. As the years went by it also became the heart of the town or city. Everyone knew that it was vital to keep the keep so the defences were built up and added to. No matter what happened in the battle, the enemy could not be allowed to breach the keep. The people had to keep the enemy out of the keep.

You get the picture. The keep had to be protected. The heart of the town had to be guarded.

So it goes with our lives. We too have a keep to keep. Everything in our livers originates in our hearts. All of the issues of our life come out of our heart.

We can spend a lot of time making sure the various walls are right. That is a good idea. We need to defend those walls. That is of course, unless those walls are nothing more than a façade, but that is a topic for another day.

But at the core we must guard our hearts. Eventually what is in our hearts will manifest itself. It will come out. If our heart is not right, we have no strength.

If the enemy was allowed into the castle keep the defences were ruined. Defeat was imminent. It was only a matter of time.

If we allow the enemy into our hearts we too are inviting defeat.