Doors
My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.
Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:20-27
Love is the key to unlock many doors.
The doors to life and learning are your ears and the eyes. You decide what you will open the doors of your life to and let enter in and what you keep out. Whatever you allow to enter through your doorways travels to your heart and eventually directs your steps and comes out of your mouth. To open any of the doors to your life, it requires love and a willingness to be open to someone else’s perspective rather than holding on exclusively to your own. Love means putting down your agenda, and opening up the doors of your life for someone else. When you do this, you allow for traffic to move in both directions. You both open your life to the outside influence and you pour yourself into the outside source as well.
Don't be so smart that you have no heart.
As things come in to the midst of your heart, you become wise in those areas of knowledge. However, with much wisdom and knowledge can come pride and you lock the doors to your heart because you feel you know better than others and are unwilling to receive any input from outside of yourself. “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:21). As you gain wisdom, you have to constantly measure whether your wisdom is in alignment with God’s word or not. You can only do that if you leave the doors to your heart open and you continually bring the Bible into your heart to measure your heart against God’s revealed Word. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.” (Proverbs 3:7). In order to not be wise in your own eyes, you have to depart from evil and let the fear of the Lord direct the focus of your heart.
You have to keep special things special.
You shouldn’t open up the doors of your life to everyone; there are some influences—people and things—that you should not open the doors of your heart to. By deciding to not let some people influence you, you are not being unloving, you are guarding your heart. As you keep your heart with all diligence, you will be able to put away filthy language from your lips. When you change what is in the cistern of your life, you will change what pours out of your mouth. “...The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature…” (James 3:6b). While the fuel for the fire is embedded in your heart, the tongue is the ignition point that sets the rest of the course of one’s life. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10). Unlock the doors of your heart with love to Jesus, let Him fill you, and let Him flow out of your lips. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord as you set aflame the course of your life.