protecting your heart

²³Preserve your heart with all watchfulness, for life proceeds from this.

⁷Therefore, be subject to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you duplicitous souls!

⁶Be anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.

³The old error has gone away. You will serve peace: peace, for we have hoped in you.

⁷And so shall the peace of God, which exceeds all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

¹⁶So then, I say: Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

¹⁴Because he has hoped in me, I will free him. I will protect him because he has known my name. ¹⁵He will cry out to me, and I will heed him. I am with him in tribulation. I will rescue him, and I will glorify him. ¹⁶I will fill him with length of days. And I will reveal to him my salvation.

¹The Praise of a Canticle, of David. Whoever dwells with the assistance of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven. ²He will say to the Lord, “You are my supporter and my refuge.” My God, I will hope in him. ³For he has freed me from the snare of those who go hunting, and from the harsh word. ⁴He will overshadow you with his shoulders, and you will hope under his wings. ⁵His truth will surround you with a shield. You will not be afraid: before the terror of the night, ⁶before the arrow flying in the day, before the troubles that wander in the darkness, nor of invasion and the midday demon.

¹⁰Concerning the rest, brothers, be strengthened in the Lord, by the power of his virtue. ¹¹Be clothed in the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the treachery of the devil. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the directors of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.

¹³Who is wise and well-taught among you? Let him show, by means of good conversation, his work in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you hold a bitter zeal, and if there is contention in your hearts, then do not boast and do not be liars against the truth. ¹⁵For this is not wisdom, descending from above, but rather it is earthly, beastly, and diabolical. ¹⁶For wherever envy and contention is, there too is inconstancy and every depraved work. ¹⁷But within the wisdom that is from above, certainly, chastity is first, and next peacefulness, meekness, openness, consenting to what is good, a plenitude of mercy and good fruits, not judging, without falseness. ¹⁸And so the fruit of justice is sown in peace by those who make peace.