the enchanted ground

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
(Proverbs 4:23)

I meditated on this verse often as a young single girl, and rightly so. But as the years have passed and I married and had children, sadly this verse was no longer one I thought about – until this morning.

I was reading Deuteronomy 8 earlier today where God warned the people of Israel to take care lest they forget him, lulled by the comforts of this world. Interestingly, Spurgeon addressed this very topic in his Morning and Evening devotional for today’s evening reading. The words he wrote gripped my heart like my daughters do my legs when they are fearful, clinging on for dear life.

Spurgeon wrote,

“We must stay awake now, for we are crossing enchanted ground and are most likely to fall asleep to our own ruin, unless our faith in Jesus is a reality and our love for Jesus an ardent flame.”

“Our danger is that we might grow rich and become proud; we might give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world and lose our faith.”

“Many in these days of easy-believism are likely to prove to be tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with attractive masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God.”

As I meditated on Deuteronomy 8 and Spurgeon’s words of warning, Proverbs 4:23 came flooding into my mind. If we are still breathing, our race is not complete. I pray that the Lord help us guard our hearts, to keep them with all vigilance from the heart-numbing lull of the enchanted ground. May we take care that our heart’s affections be firmly fixed on our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, avoiding the ever-pulling world, and so prove to be true-born children of the living God.