Did you know that you are the sole guardian of the gates of your life, no one can force themselves into your life? Did you know that as a gatekeeper of your own life, you have a responsibility to protect your life from things that would seek to destroy it? Many of us have been conditioned to blame others or the devil for things we have allowed through our gates. But today, is a great day to guard the gates and let the process of garden maintenance begin.
A gate is a movable barrier, usually on hinges, closing an opening in a fence, wall, or other enclosure; an opening permitting passage through an enclosure (dictionary.com). We have three gates through which access is granted to our life, which Scripture calls our garden. We have an eye gate, an ear gate and a mouth gate.
The eye gate and the ear gate are entry-only gates, the mouth gate is an entry and exit gate. With the mouth gate, food can go in and we need to watch what we eat, but words can come out and that is really what we need to guard. The Bible says in Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. But things do not get in our heart through our mouths, for what goes in the mouth enters the stomach and then exits as refuse. So, how do things get into our hearts that come out of our mouth?
The ear gate and the eye gate are the only two entry points into our lives. What we see with our eyes and hear with our ears are what goes into our heart and then eventually comes out of our mouth. The Lord is calling us to guard our ear gate and eye gate, for in doing so we guard our heart and then we can guard our mouth gate.
What we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear either builds beauty in our garden or it brings destruction. The increase of evil we are seeing in the world, is predominantly due to the fact that we have not guarded the gates of our lives or the lives of our children. What comes through the television is destructive to our gardens. What we read in newspapers plants fear in us; music we listen to can “feel our pain” but does not help our situation.
We have not guarded our gates and now we have gardens that are neglected, destroyed or diseased. Many people’s lives are evidence of gates that have been left unguarded. But the truth is, the Lord is calling us to guard the gates again.
We may have left them unguarded and our gardens may be in disarray, but today is a new day and His mercies are new every morning. We can heed the call to guard the gate today, by making godly choices about what we allow into our eye gate and ear gate and what comes out of our mouth gate. We are the most powerful agent on earth, but we render ourselves powerless when we don’t heed the call to guard the gates.
Lisa Great is an author, speaker and blogger with Mouthpiece Ministries International. She has been in ministry for over 25 years, she has a BA in Youth and Family Studies, a MA in Education. She can be reached at mouthpieceministries.net;