Guarding Your Heart: What the Bible Teaches

What Does the Bible Mean by “Heart”?

When the Bible talks about the heart, it really means all the parts that make your inner self. How you feel, think, and respond are all aspects of your heart. It makes perfect sense then when God tells us to love with our whole heart. God wants our hearts. Every part of us must love God.

Why Christ’s Sacrifice Calls Us to Love God

God has given His only Son for our sins; surely this must make us pause and realize how much the Savior loves us. The cross was a high price to pay to redeem us from the effects of sin. Loving God should be a natural reaction when we grasp the depth of His gift.

What the Bible Teaches About Guarding Your Heart

Many believers wonder what the Bible teaches about guarding your heart. According to Proverbs 4:23, this inner you, your heart, must be guarded. Then, the NIV translation explains why: "everything you do flows from it." Do I want to do good or evil? Do I want to love God or ignore Him? Do I want to grow in holiness or grow further from Him? All these come from the heart.

Guarding Your Heart Like a Home

Think of it like guarding your home. You keep your doors locked so people won't break in and do you harm. You open your doors to your friends and neighbors because you know they're safe to be around. Opening your heart to evil only invites hurt and pain, while opening your heart to God's love brings peace and fruitfulness.

How to Protect Your Heart Daily

I guard my heart, my thoughts, actions, and emotions, by controlling what I let in. Ask yourself, "What am I listening to, seeing, or surrounding myself with each day?" Am I reading the Word? Am I praying? Am I focusing on my Source and my Strength?

Dangers of an Unguarded Heart

Many of us spend too much time today in negative social media. Sadly, social media and often our jobs give us a lot of opportunities to hear ungodly language. So many people around us neglect God or worse yet literally blaspheme Him to our faces everywhere we turn.

Soon our guard is down. The world creeps in, tempting us in a thousand ways. The chance to watch porn unnoticed (we think), the opportunity to dwell on sinful thoughts, and the occasion to imagine a hundred dreadful, scary outcomes from what we see daily on our phones are just a few examples. We slip and we fall.

In his book, Guarding Your Heart, by A.W. Pink he says:

“All outward actions are worthless while our hearts be not right with God.”

Even when we are doing good, God knows our motivations. Is it to make ourselves look good? Is it for accolades from others? Why we do something is important to God. He looks for the humble to do His work.

But when we stay guarded this outcome becomes less likely. When our focus is where it should be, we will see growth in sanctification. This should be what a normal Christian life looks like, even though we may stumble on occasion. We should, at least slowly, see our desires increasingly align with God's desires. We should see our fruit grow.

Following the Holy Spirit’s Guidance

But a guarded heart doesn't come without effort. We should actively "seek the Lord", "hear the Lord", and "obey the Lord". Becoming a Christian doesn't mean a magic wand is waved over us. Indeed, the Holy Spirit does come to live in us. Without Him there would never be growth in sanctification. But sadly, we are very capable of tuning Him out when He tells us things we don't really want to hear.

He may say: "Don't date that person", "Don't watch that show", "Forgive that person", "Yes, love even that person." We still have the capacity to ignore, tune out, and live our lives as before. Yet, if we are truly what we say we are, our desires will always be to follow, because "my sheep hear my voice" (John 10:27). We know who our Good Shepherd is and what He asks of us. This guarding extends to how we handle inner condemnation, as seen in 1 John.

Finding Peace When Your Heart Condemns You

In 1 John 3:20 we read, “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” Has your heart ever condemned you? There are two ways to view this: either we feel condemned over a past sin we have sincerely repented of, or we feel condemned over a sin we are currently in the midst of. Jesus said He came into the world not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17).

If we have asked forgiveness for a past sin and repented we can know that God has forgiven us and remembers it no more. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Even Peter, who denied Christ three times to his great shame, reminded Jesus, "you know, Lord, that I love you." Yes, Jesus did know, because He knew Peter's heart, the real him, just as we are known by Jesus today.

Jesus doesn't just know every sin you commit, He also looks at the heart and sees the love for others you have. He knows the times you have served and cared for those less fortunate. He knows the prayers you have spoken for those you love and for those who are hard to love. He knows when you have been His hands and feet to the world.

But what about the times when our heart condemns us and it is justified? What about when we feel guilty and remorseful over a sin that we are still living in? The Holy Spirit is there within our hearts to search us and know us and to bring our failings to mind. Why? So we can seek forgiveness and turn from that sin.

God does know everything about us. There is no hiding our sin from Him. There is no darkness black enough or no location far enough away to keep Him from seeing into our heart of hearts. In fact, the more holy a person becomes, the more often they are aware of the sin that remains in their lives.

This can become a problem sometimes. We doubt our salvation because we still see sin lurking in the shadows. We still have areas in our lives that we want to hang on to.

I remember hearing a story about a great evangelist's mother. He came home one day to find her sitting at the table sobbing. He asked her what was wrong and she told him she was so sinful, how could she really be saved. He knew his mother was one of the most prayerful, righteous women he knew, full of love for God and others. He assured her that God knew her heart. We can't achieve perfection this side of Heaven, so don't let lingering imperfection make you fear you have lost your salvation.

Concern is justified if we remain in unrepentant sin without caring. God is greater than our hearts. Rightly or wrongly, when we feel condemned He knows if that is justified or not. We should condemn sin in our hearts, not just by being sorry, but by changing our behavior. We should be obedient sons and daughters to our King.

Sometimes it is so hard for us to see past the wrong we have done or the good we should have done. In 1 John 3:19, John says "By this we shall know that we are of the truth." What does "this" refer to? The fact that "God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything." John spends a lot of time in his first letter telling people not to sin but he knows they will. He doesn't want us to think that just because our emotions make us feel condemned at some point, that it means we don't belong to Jesus.

Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness

We have been blessed with forgiveness for our past sins and we will be blessed with forgiveness when we repent. Guarding our hearts and knowing He sees us, should inspire us to have gratitude and respectful fear of the Lord. In fact, we are commanded to fear the Lord.

Sometimes we may take sin lightly, even unintentionally, but God never does. No sin, whether lack of forgiveness, gossip, or laziness, should be dismissed as insignificant. Sin is what required the death of His Son.

This gift of righteousness that He has given us was bought and paid for with a fearfully high price. It is not our righteousness but His that we now clothe ourselves in. That is what He sees when He sees His forgiven children - you and I.