Keep a close watch on yourself. 1 Timothy 4:16
There are five steps involved in guarding your heart, and the first step we are going to look at today is to watch your life.
Jesus said to the disciples, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mark 14:38). Paul said to Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Tim. 4:16). Paul also said to the Ephesians elders, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).
Think about your car—as you drive along the road there is certain information that you need to have close at hand: What speed are you going? How much fuel do you have left in the tank? Then there is other information like the temperature of your engine, and the level of your oil. You don’t watch that constantly, but if the temperature of your engine rises you need to know. All of this information is displayed on the dashboard in front of you.
What would a dashboard for your soul look like? There would be red lights and green lights. Red lights would be impulses in your soul that have the tendency to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God.
Here are some examples of red lights that you might put on your dashboard: Fear, pride, greed, self-pity, resentment, cowardice, anger, hard thoughts about God, and coldness in worship—any sense of formality in worship, or any sense of going through the motions.
No one can know the impulses that lurk in your heart better than you. So be honest with yourself and identify the impulses of the heart that you most need to guard against.
Have you seen any red lights on the dashboard of your heart lately?
