In the Old Testament, when God wanted to deliver a message to a king, He sent a prophet. Sometimes the prophet used a parable to confront the king. For example, when God sent Nathan to rebuke David for committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the death of Uriah, Nathan told a parable about two men in one city—one rich with many flocks and herds, and one poor with only a single lamb. When the rich man received a visitor, he refused to use one of his own animals and instead took the poor man’s lamb. David was furious and declared that the rich man deserved death—only for Nathan to reveal that David himself was the man in the parable.
A similar moment occurs in 1 Kings 20. God gave Ahab victory over Ben-Hadad and his Syrian forces, and commanded that Ben‑Hadad be destroyed. However, Ahab made a treaty with him and spared his life. This displeased God, so He sent a prophet with a parable to confront Ahab.
“The prophet found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him and wounded him. 38 Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes. 39 As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’ 40 While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared. “That is your sentence,” the king of Israel said. “You have pronounced it yourself.” 41 Then the prophet quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. 42 He said to the king, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people.’” ” —1 Kings 20:37-42 (NIV)
In the thick of our own battles, God has entrusted us with things we must guard. Yet many times, we become busy “here and there” and lose what God has placed in our care—often with serious consequences.
Here are five things God calls us to guard.
Guard your Heart
Scripture clearly describes the characteristics of an unsaved heart. Jesus says, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart… evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.“ (Matt. 15:18-19).
And Jeremiah adds: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
God knows the condition of the human heart, and He knows that salvation requires a new one:
“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Eze. 36:26).
God removes the heart of stone —the hardened, unresponsive heart that produces sin— and gives us a heart of flesh that responds to His Spirit. And then He commands us: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Prov.4:23).
If we neglect our hearts while being busy “here and there” absorbed in the pressures of life, sin that once was restrained can re‑emerge.
How do we guard our hearts? We guard them the way David did—by inviting God in: “Test me, Lord, and try me; examine my heart and my mind” (Ps. 26:2).
From David we also learn how to guard our hearts by welcoming God’s searching gaze: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts… lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23–24).
Guard your heart.
Guard the New Man
Paul warns us plainly about the acts of the flesh—our old self: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21).
He also calls us to a decisive break with the past: “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24).
Our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with (Rom. 6:6), but its influence still seeks expression in our lives. If we fail to guard the new man, the old man can rise again.
Paul describes this inner struggle in Romans 7, where he wrestles between the flesh and the Spirit. While we are distracted by daily concerns, the works of the flesh can creep back into a believer’s life.
Guard the new man so you continue in the faith, established and firm, being fruitful in the Spirit.
Guard the Truth
Scripture teaches in Psalm 119:151 that all God’s commandments are truth. Jesus is the truth, and His followers must pursue truth in all matters.
We must guard against every influence that aims to distort or corrupt the truth. While Christians are busy “here and there” preoccupied with being relevant and accepted by the world, the culture is actively assaulting the truth we are called to guard. Today, culture is aggressively reshaping truth—especially regarding: marriage, sex, the value of human life, and other foundational moral issues. Many Christians have begun affirming this corruption under the banner of tolerance.
We should not wait for anyone else to guard the truth—not politicians to legislate it, not schools to teach it to our children, not culture to affirm it. God has entrusted the truth to us, and we must guard it with everything we have.
How do we guard the truth? Paul shows us how: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
We don’t defend God’s truth the world’s way. Our weapons of defense are divine, powerful enough to tear down strongholds of lies. Don’t fight the world with the physical—fight it with the divine.
Prayer is one of the divine weapons God gives us to demolish strongholds against truth. But have you brought the issues you hear on the news, or the decisions affecting your children’s schools, before God in prayer? Or do you simply voice frustration and move on, preoccupied with life?
The knowledge of God’s Word is another divine weapon that can demolish arguments and every pretension raised against the truth. This requires us to know the Word. You cannot confront deception with ignorance. At home, Christian parents must diligently guard the truth by grounding their children in Scripture, preparing them to resist the alternative “truths” the culture will inevitably present to them.
Christians should practice self‑examination, taking every thought and emotion captive so they submit to Christ. In our day, truth is often judged by personal feelings. But how can you discern whether your heart aligns with God’s truth except by testing your thoughts and feelings against His Word? We should search ourselves and if we find that our thoughts are beginning to conflict with God’s truth, we must take them captive and submit them to the authority of Christ.
Guard the truth.
Guard the Word
The psalmist declares, “The entirety of Your word is truth” (Ps. 119:160). All of God’s Word is true—the parts we readily embrace and the parts that confront us.
This is why we must immerse ourselves in Scripture. If we neglect the Word, we become ignorant of the truth, and when we barely know the truth, we cannot recognize the distortions that arise in the church or in society.
While we stay busy “here and there”—reading books, watching movies and shows, following sports, tracking the news, scrolling social media, and pursuing hobbies—yet neglecting the study of God’s Word, ignorance inevitably takes root in our lives.
Hosea delivers a sobering warning: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge” (Hos. 4:6).
Cashiers and bank tellers are trained to recognize counterfeit money by studying the genuine bills. They handle real bills until they know the feel, the texture, and the security features by instinct. They compare genuine bills with genuine bills—so when a counterfeit comes across the counter, they can identify it immediately.
In the same way, how will we recognize when a preacher has veered from sound doctrine unless we are thoroughly trained in the Word of God? Only those who know the truth can discern when it is being twisted.
Peter cautioned that false teachers would certainly arise within the church—and we see them today. They secretly introduce destructive heresies, deny the sovereign Lord who redeemed them, and exploit many through their fabricated stories (2 Pe. 2:1–3).
Paul urges us to watch carefully and keep away from those who introduce obstacles contrary to the teaching of Scripture. “By smooth talk and flattery,” he warns, “they deceive the minds of naive people” (Rom. 16:17-18).
Christians must not be naive but be deeply grounded in the Word of God. False teachers have crept into the church unnoticed, and through their deceptive teachings they are drawing many believers away from the truth.
Guard the Word of God against ignorance—know it, study it, and let its truth shape your life.
Guard the Flock
This is a call to the teachers of God’s Word. Paul charges the shepherds of the church to guard their own lives and to guard the flock, recognizing the weight and responsibility of their calling.
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! ” —Acts 20:28-31
The warning to teachers is clear: beware lest, while you are busy “here and there” in the pursuit of a larger platform, a bigger congregation, more book sales, or greater recognition, you drift from your primary calling—to faithfully teach and guard the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
Paul charges Timothy, a teacher of God’s Word, to guard the truth: “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you, guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim. 1:13-14).
Returning to our main story, the Lord rebuked King Ahab for sparing Ben‑Hadad: “You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people” (1 Ki. 20:42). If we fail to guard what God has entrusted to us, we risk exchanging:
- the regenerated heart for the heart of stone,
- the new man created in righteousness for the old self of sin,
- the objective truth of God for the world’s subjective opinions,
- the knowledge of Scripture for ignorance,
- the gospel of Christ for destructive false doctrines.
This is not to condemn the ordinary responsibilities God has given us. In fact, many of the things that keep us busy—family, careers, education, and even recreation—are good gifts. Busyness itself is not necessarily wrong. However, we must refuse to separate our daily lives from our responsibility to guard what God has entrusted to us.
Do not leave God’s truth, His Word, the new heart and new man, or His flock behind when you step into the busyness of life. Take the renewed heart with you. Take God’s truth with you. Take His Word with you. Walk as the new man wherever you go. Preach sound doctrine every time you teach. Be inseparable from God—whether you are here or there, busy or still, working or resting.
You’ve seen it in the movies: a briefcase holding something of great importance is handcuffed to the carrier’s wrist so it cannot be separated from them. This is a picture of the Christian life. What God has entrusted to us—our heart, His Word, His truth, the new man and His flock—is meant to remain inseparable from us wherever we go.
In verse 39, the command was simple: “Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life.” The command wasn’t to stay in one place and guard the captive; it was simply to guard him. The man could go to the market, to school, or anywhere else he needed to go—but he had to go with the captive. In the same way, when God calls us to guard our heart, the new man, His truth, His Word, and His flock, He is not asking us to retreat from life. He doesn’t expect us to hide in a church building or avoid the world out of fear of contamination. Instead, He calls us to live in the world without becoming like the world (Jn. 17:11–17). We are to carry and guard everything He has entrusted to us—everywhere we go, in every season, at all times.
So when the King looks at you and asks, “Where is My truth? Where is My Word? Where is the new heart and the new man I gave you? Where is the flock I placed under your care?” may you be able to say with confidence, “Right here, Sir.”
Amen
