3 Ways to Guard Your Heart

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

The heart has been called the mission control center. It reflects who we truly are. Within the heart exists the will, emotions, affections (or desires), and intentions. And the heart informs the mind and conscience with then results in behavior. Thus, the inner man produces the outer man.

This explains why Solomon commands us to “keep” our hearts. We are to guard what goes into our hearts.

The goal is never to reform the outer man but to change the inner man. John Phillips wrote in his commentary on Proverbs, “The heart must be right if the life is to be right. The heart can be right only if it is cleansed by the precious blood of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Even then the heart must be kept with all diligence” (pg. 124).

How can we guard our hearts?

1. Cultivate a community of saints around you. Proverbs is filled with promises about the positive results of having righteous friends (7:4; 14:20; 16:28; 17:9, 17; 18:24; 19:4, 6-7; 22:11, 24; 27:6, 9-10). Paul says that bad friends will contaminate your good character (I Corinthians 15:33). What kind of character does your sphere of influence contain?

2. Pay attention to what you “take in.” Like an Excel spreadsheet receives data, processes that data, and then uses that data to produce results, everything we take in will eventually produce something in our lives. What television shows do you regularly view? What are the common topics in your conversations? What kinds of books do you often read? When you scroll the web (e.g., social media), what kinds of people do you follow?

3. Preach the Gospel to yourself. There are few messages the heart needs more than the reminder that it is deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and cannot be redeemed (Romans 10:8-10) and sanctified by any other than God (Ephesians 3:17).