Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

   - Proverbs 4.23

What use is it for the passions to be assailed by a servant, when they are found to be in league with the master?

   - Columbanus, Sermon II, Irish, 7th century

It’s always the passions that get me in trouble.

I get angry because of this, that, or the other, and everybody pays. I brood in a melancholy funk for no particular reason, and everybody pays.

By the way, “everybody pays” usually means Susie, which tells you how stupid it is for me to allow my passions to rule common sense.

The devil – who is the Lord’s servant, as you know – knows full well my vulnerability. And yours. Which is all the more reason why we need to take Solomon’s advice very seriously: Watch over your heart with all vigilance!

For what good will it be for the devil to try to fire up my passions and cause me to sin if my passions are consistently in league with the Master? He’s wasting his time on me when that’s the case. So making that the case has got to be full time work.

Keep watch over your hearts, dear friends, because everything else in life flows from this. What you say, how you say it, how you treat other people, how faithful you are in following the Lord – all this comes from the heart, the affections, the passions. What you long for and desire. What ignites your emotions.

With me, it’s anger. It’s brooding melancholy. What is it with you? Jealousy? Sensitivity? Lust? Covetousness?

We are all vulnerable to the attacks of the devil at precisely the point where our affections are not carefully guarded. Guard yours at all times by resting them at the feet of the risen and glorious Master. He’ll train your affections to love.

And send the devil packing.

Psalm 86.7-9 (Andrews: “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”)
When in my trouble, Lord, I call You,
You answer me, there is none like You!
There are no works like Yours, and all whom
You have created shall worship You.
Lord, be gracious to me, Lord be gracious to me,
All shall glory give to You!

Lord, guard my heart; channel my affections into Your service. Let me not be distracted, disturbed, or derailed because I am unable or unwilling to keep my heart with all vigilance. All glory and thanks to You, O Lord.