Guard Your Heart - Proverbs 4:23

The Anna Szabo Show

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23. In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, I’ll help you examine your journey and witness how not guarding your heart leaves you overwhelmed, exhausted, paralyzed by anxiety, unable or unwilling to do God’s work, and incapable to fulfill His purpose for your life. We will ponder Proverbs 4:23 and its practical application in our daily lives. I will share with you how I personally guard my heart and how I realized the deadly implications of leaving my heart unguarded, defenseless, unprotected, and exposed. The deadly consequences were a paralyzing anxiety and suicidal depression.

The examples of an unguarded heart, which I’ll share today, will be relevant to most of the Christian women listening to my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and reading my Christian blog Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com

This original and authentic Biblical devotional for Christian women will encourage and empower you with God’s truth as we apply it practically to real-life experiences we all go through as His disciples and daughters.

I am Anna Szabo from AnnaSzabo.com, and you are listening to The Anna Szabo Show Christian podcast for women who love Jesus. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing testimonies of God’s amazing glory revealed through my life story.

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There are three things you can expect from this Biblical devotional for Christian women today:

1. You’ll hear the scriptures-based devotional I prepared for you
2. There will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 4:23 as it relates to your own faith journey
3. I’ll pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life

Let’s get started!

PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23

I was raised by a very abusive mother. This year, in 2021, I have been sharing my story as a scapegoat daughter of a narcissistic mother on my main YouTube channel every day. Every day, I post a new helpful video on YouTube to share what happened to me and how the narcissistic trauma affected me. I always mention that the best way to deal with abuse is to block the abuser. I blocked my abusive mother on social media everywhere even when I still had social media, before I permanently deleted my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter in 2020. I also blocked my abusive, hostile, cruel mother on email and phone. But while those were effective measures, in February on 2021, as I went to my email trash can to clean it, I was stunned to see that, despite all the blocking filters I applied, almost 100 hateful, abusive, death-focused emails from my toxic mother made their way to my email. As I saw her messages terrorizing me, denouncing me, harassing me, and condemning me, I immediately spiraled down into a deep and very dark place.

It’s important to disclose here something significant. My mother tried to kill me many times, and she repeatedly told me: I hate you and I just want you dead. This was the main theme of her 25-year long relationship with me while I lived with her on Russia. I’m 38 now, and I’ve lived in America for almost 13 years. I haven’t seen my mother for this long but her hatred and cruelty are deadly.

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23

I became unable to work out or get out of bed many times before due to her hateful, cruel, evil, death-wishing attacks. This time, I knew that even technology is imperfect, and I needed to build guardrails around my heart in addition to blocking my toxic narcissistic mother with technology. Not guarding my heart, leaving it exposed to my mother’s negativity, I attempted to kill myself twice.

When I protect my heart by guarding myself against hateful people, evil cookers, gossipers, manipulators, and abusers, I am able to be very productive, live a life of joy and peace, stay healthy, and focus on my future. When I don’t guard my heart, abusers suck the life out of me, leaving me lifeless and depressed.

It happened to me many times: my abusive mother sucked the life out of my heart and my three abusive husbands did the same. Today, I live a peaceful and productive life with God. I am single and celibate, healing from all the trauma inflicted on me by cruel abusers. I did not guard myself from them very well.

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23

How do I guard my heart?

1. I pray and stay in God’s word daily
2. I have an attitude of gratitude
3. I have a gratitude journal where I ponder God’s goodness and grace
4. I don’t force my emotions to build up and explode; instead, I cry whenever I want to, freely and intensely.
5. I use technology to block abusers.
6. I don’t participate in gossip.
7. I don’t go places where my heart will be crushed: strip clubs, casinos, night clubs, violent shows, cruel movie demonstrations, and other similar places where I used to go for fun.
8. I don’t do the kinds of things that would suck the life out of my heart: I’m not on social media, I have no TV or cable at home, I am mot on any dating apps, and instead of l that, I spend quality tome with God doing productive work He called me to do, as well as enjoying my fellowship with God and worshiping Him through poetry, art, my Christian blog, my podcast for Christian women, my Biblical devotionals, prayers, meditations, and videos.
9. I leverage introspection to witness God’s good plan for my life unfolding as I look back and document what happened, literally seeing God’s glory throughout my entire life story.
10. I am careful choosing friends and whom I invite into my home and into my circle. I practice discernment in order to guard my heart, for everything I do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23).

Now I would like to show you some practical examples of how different people guard their hearts in their everyday lives.

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23

Kary wrote:

“I am the daughter of a narcissistic mother. She is jealous of my life. She is angry when I am happy. She has told lies about me, tried to kill me, tried to have me arrested, tried to have my children taken away, fakes illnesses and injuries, tells me she is depressed all the time for the last 30 years - all this as a way to manipulate me. Now she is getting older and has poor health. I can’t take care of her because I would kill myself. She sends me into panic attacks and deep depression.”

As you can see, staying as far physically as possible from toxicity and manipulation is an effective way to guard your heart so that you can continue living a life, for which God Himself created you.

K.P. wrote:

“I had to run away from my mother at age 15. Narcissists can be dangerous and toxic to our souls.”

As you can see, running away from abuse and danger is an effective way to guard your heart so that you can continue living a life, for which God Himself created you.

And now I want to show you how everything you do, which flows from your heart, can come to an end if you don’t guard your heart in Christ.

K R writes:

“I am the only parent to a teenager, and I am alone. I am struggling with getting out of bed and functioning. I am trying to hide it from my child. I am overwhelmed. I’m so weary. I watched your TED talk. I use my normal false cheer with my child who is angry with God and has no father, he is angry at what his father has done and continues to do. He tried to commit suicide because of what his father did to us. I have to have my fake positive Christian talk and face.”

What is it in your life that is hurting your heart and from which you must guard your heart in order to continue living a productive life of purpose as God ordained for you? Let’s do an exercise to allow you to ponder Proverbs 4:23 in practical ways.

PART 2. PROVERBS 4:23 SPIRITUAL EXERCISE TO GROW YOUR FAITH

I want you to think right now about YOUR journey with God and what things or events or people or hobbies or habits suck the life out of you. What is it that makes you feel overwhelmed, depressed, and hopeless, derailing you from God’s purpose and His straight path for your life?

Once you identify what that is, go to AnnaSzabo.com/proverbs-423 and let me know in the comments how you plan to courageously guard your heart. Once you share it with me, I want to hold you accountable because your next step is this: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23

Tell me what you are working to protect your heart from, and I’ll be your accountability partner and your personal prayer warrior. Now, I want to pray for you.

Before I do, if you’d like to support my ministry, there’s a link in the description where you can make a donation and shop my Christian apparel collection with encouraging and empowering Biblical affirmations to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word.

Let’s pray together!

PART 3: “GUARD YOUR HEART” BIBLICAL PRAYER

Father God, I thank you for your presence in my heart and your reign over my life. I rely on your holy word. I seek your wisdom. I pay attention to hear your voice. I follow your divine guidance to live a life of purpose, peace, and prosperity.

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23 says.

God, I pray that you show me what I need to guard my heart from and also give me wisdom to see how to guard my heart effectively and courageously.

Father in Heaven, I know that when I establish boundaries in order to guard my heart, many people in my current circle won’t like it, they won’t accept my boundaries. But my heart is mine to guard, and the responsibility to guard my heart, God, you put on me. I know that once I commit to guarding my heart in accordance with your holy word, my habits and lifestyle will change. Guide my way, lead me, show me how to do this, God! I am yours, God. I’m here to obey you out of gratitude for my salvation. I want to honor you with my life, God. I want to practice my faith through my actions. My intentions are focused on you. Show me the way. Take me where I need to go.

“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23 instructs me. God, let me guard my heart from evil, not in my own power but through Christ in me. I pray this in His name, in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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