Caring for your heart is how you protect your relationship with God.

Now there’s a new thought. But isn’t our heart the new dwelling place of God? It is where we commune with him. It is where we hear his voice. Most of the folks I know who have never heard God speak to them are the same folks who live far from their hearts; they practice the Christianity of principles. Then they wonder why God seems distant. I guess all that intimacy with God stuff is for others, not me. It’s like a friend who hates the telephone. He neglects to pay the bills, could care less when the phone company disconnects the service. Then he wonders why “nobody ever calls.” You cannot cut off your heart and expect to hear from God.

Clairvaux describes Christian maturity as the stage where “we love ourselves for God’s sake,” meaning that because he considers our hearts the treasures of the kingdom, we do too. We care for ourselves in the same way a woman who knows she is deeply loved cares for herself, while a woman who has been tossed aside tends to “let herself go,” as the saying goes. God’s friends care for their hearts because they matter to him.

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