Fort Knox is one of the most heavily guarded places on the planet. There are lookout towers at each corner of the building. Supposedly there are land mines, electric fences, and machine guns that are activated when invisible lasers are tripped.
They use radar and satellite imaging to keep a close eye on any suspicious activity.
At any given time there are up to 40,000 guards on standby ready to respond.
Now, let’s say you make it past all of this, there’s still the vault itself to deal with.
The door to the vault is made of steel and concrete, and weighs in at over 41,000 pounds. There’s not a single person that knows the combination to get in. Instead, certain staff members only know one combination each.
Why the need for such extensive security? Because Fort Knox is home to over 4,582 tons of gold worth 6.2 billion dollars. Back in 1974 it contained 11.4 billion dollars.
All the security makes sense; that’s a lot of money! But what if there wasn’t any gold? It would be a complete waste of time and money to build a fort like this and leave it empty.
God has instructed Christians to guard our hearts, but the first step is to fill it with the word of God. Proverbs 4:13 says, “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” Verses 20-22 say, “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”
Leading up to Proverbs 4:23, the instruction to us is not just to guard our hearts but to guard the godly instructions within our hearts. Not only that, but we are told that God’s instruction “is your life” and “they are life to those who find them.” A heart filled with sin and worldliness is a dead heart. There is no life flowing from it. It is only when we put Gods word in our hearts that we will have life flowing forth from it.
Guarding our hearts, according to scripture, is the action of protecting the biblical truths and instructions that God has given us. If we aren’t guarding God’s Word in our hearts, then what are we protecting? If we fail to put Proverbs 4:23 in the context of chapter four and the rest of scripture, we will guard our hearts from receiving what we need from God. If we guard our heart before letting truth in and we don’t guard our heart to keep the truth in, we will be opening the door to sin and selfish desires.
Carl Pollard
