Ezekiel 28:2
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Before a person physically commits sin, they commit sin in their heart. Before Satan rebelled against God in thinking that he could take over Heaven, he thought he could take over Heaven in his heart. Satan’s problem was his heart. His actions only revealed what was going on in his heart. Had Satan protected his heart, he would have never rebelled against God. However, it was what was happening in his heart that eventually became action.
The heart is the most vital area that a believer must protect. Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. God did not say that the issues of life come from your actions, but from your heart. It is the heart that must be guarded because it is the heart where actions get their commands. In verse 6, Satan set his heart against God, and his heart resulted in the rebellious act that led to his demise.
When you search the Scriptures, you always find that before someone sins, their heart had already committed the sin. Before Saul ever through a javelin at David, he became jealous of him in his heart. When Peter addressed Ananias and Sapphira about withholding the portion of money they promised God, he asked Ananias, why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Had Ananias protected his heart, he would have never committed the sin.
Jesus deals with the importance of protecting the heart in Matthew 5:28. He says, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Adultery is always committed in the heart before it is committed in action. Sin is the result of what you have been pondering in your heart. If you keep your heart from pondering the wrong things, you will keep yourself from sin.
Satan’s target is your heart. Satan knows that if he can get your heart to think wrong that he can get you to do wrong. One reason God commands the believer to put on the breastplate of righteousness is because, if people will protect their heart by doing right, they will never allow Satan to hit their heart with wrong.
One mistake many make is they only deal with the sins of actions when they need to deal with the sins of their heart. Before they ever have sin of action, they will commit sin in their heart. David committed adultery with Bathsheba in his heart before he physically committed it with her. Absalom killed his brother in his heart before he actually killed him. Cain despised his brother in his heart before he let the jealousy turn to hatred, and hatred turned to violence.
To fight sin successfully, you must fight it in your heart. Too many are waiting to fight sin when it is too late. If you wait to fight the action of sin, you have already let sin set roots in your heart that will be hard to pull out.
My friend, protect your heart! Every issue of life comes from your heart; therefore, you must protect your heart by protecting what you allow yourself to see and hear. At the first sign of sin in your heart is where you squash it. Let me encourage you to get right with the sins in your heart; by doing so, you will successfully win the battle over sin.