10 Ways to Guard Your Heart

About a month ago, during a prayer night at church, our pastor exhorted those who were in attendance to “Guard our Hearts.” He read from the fourth chapter of Proverbs, verse 23, which says, “Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Ever since then, the Lord has taken me on this journey of studying what it means for us to guard our hearts. Earlier in the text, Solomon was instructing his children and then his son specifically on the importance of valuing wisdom. He laid out the priority of listening and keeping wisdom, the way of wisdom versus the way of the wicked, and then he circled back to the portion of scripture that we will unpack today.  

Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”  

As we unpack these scriptures and a few more today, I am going to provide us with a list of ways to guard our hearts. 

1. Focus On God’s Word.  

Notice first that Solomon pleads with his son to pay attention to his words. This world is competing for our attention. It is easy to be led astray when our focus isn’t on the truth of who God is and His word. One question to ask ourselves frequently is What are we focusing on? The answer to this will reveal what is stealing or re-centering our focus. What we focus on will magnify. If we are focused on what the world is doing, others’ opinions, what others are not doing, or our feelings, this leaves our hearts open and vulnerable to attacks from the enemy. If we focus on who God is, who He says we are, and what his word has to say about our situation, or what He has called us to do, our hearts will be well guarded against deception and error.  

2. Guard Our Ear Gates.  

Next, Solomon tells his son to incline his ear to his sayings. What are we listening to? The answer to this will reveal what voices hold the most weight in our lives. We need to take inventory of the conversations we are in, the music we are listening to, the counsel we are receiving, as well as the words spoken to us or even to ourselves. Are these voices speaking truth or error? Are they speaking life or death? Are they edifying and encouraging, or critical and destructive? Is who or what we are listening to, counseling our flesh or our spirit? Is it flattery or godly counsel? Our ears are gateways to our hearts. Silencing the noise, error, or ungodly counsel is an imperative in guarding our hearts.  

3. Guard Our Eye Gates.  

Thirdly, Solomon instructs his son not to let his words depart from his eyes. What we look at shapes our desires. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.” Our eyes are a gate to our hearts as well. The bible has a lot to say about what we look at. What we look at does matter. What kind of content are we consuming with our eyes? This will feed our hearts with good or evil. In today's social media world, we are bombarded with millions of images day after day. Violence, sexual content, materialism, and perversion are everywhere. If we are to survive the assault on our hearts, it will take some effort on our part. Some stuff we are going to have to cut off completely. Some subscriptions we must delete. Some people must be unfollowed. If we feed our hearts with lustful images, it’s only a matter of time before our feet follow. If we feed our eye gates in needing more stuff, our hands will follow. If not careful, the unguarded eye gate will leave our hearts vulnerable to assault from the enemy.  

4. Value God’s Word Above All Else. 

Solomon goes on to say, “Keep them (his words) in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.” We can’t keep what we have not received. Earlier in Chapter 4, Solomon told his children that his father, David, instructed him to have a receptive heart. If our heart is closed off to the truth of God’s word, we will not be able to keep anything. If you fall into that category, pray and ask God to give you a receptive heart to the truth of His word.  We keep what we value. To keep means to retain possession of something.  

Whether we want to admit it or not, our parents' words have an impact. What they said or even never said can injure us or empower us. Years ago, my parents dedicated me to the Lord as a little baby. As my mother told me, the pastor held me up and prophesied over me these words: “The Mighty One”. Looking back at those prophetic words spoken over me, they have helped me through some dark seasons of my life. Not in the sense where I was puffed up with pride, but in the sense that the Lord or my mother brought them to remembrance, which helped me to get back up and never quit. God’s word is more powerful than any man's ever is, but words do have power. Keeping God’s word at the center of our hearts will not only bring life and health to our bodies but also provide protection around our hearts.  

5. Guard Our Hearts With All Diligence 

In my next blog, we will discuss the types of hearts we are guarding against. But today, let’s turn our attention to the word diligence. Solomon goes on to say, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Diligence means persistence, thoroughness, and a steady application, in other words, effort. It is going to take daily effort to keep our hearts clean, pure, and guarded. It takes diligence to maintain a house or a fit body. It takes diligence to raise god-fearing children. It takes diligence to keep a healthy marriage. In the same way, it will take diligence to guard our hearts. It is going to take daily effort to spend time with the Lord to recognize His voice. It is going to take self-examination to eliminate the drain on our focus. It is going to take persistence to guard our ear gates and eye gates. Breaking bad habits that leave our hearts vulnerable is going to take diligence.  

6. Guard Our Hearts With Daily Repentance. 

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the heart the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Our conversation matters to God. It is a great indicator of the condition of our hearts. Solomon continues to say, “Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.” Daily repentance is key in guarding our hearts against deception and hardness. Daily confession and repentance maintain our fellowship with the Lord. Staying in close communion with God is protection against falling into deception or our prayers being hindered.  

7. Guard Our Hearts By Fixing Our Focus.  

“Let our eyes look straight ahead, and our eyelids look right before you.” It is so easy to get off course by focusing on what others are doing or not doing. Man can be a huge distraction; that is why it is important to focus on our walk with God and not someone else's. God may tell us to do something, and our fleshly nature will delay because we don’t see anyone else doing it. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Sometimes people’s lives are waiting on whether we decide to be obedient and do what God has called us to do. Fixing our focus guards our hearts against jealousy and comparison, but it also brings with it a contentment in Jesus. That we are in our own lane running our own race for the glory of God.  

8. Guard Our Hearts By Self-Reflection. 

“Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established.” 

Solomon instructs his son to think about the direction of his life. He encourages him to think about his ways, and we should do the same. It is easy to get caught up in patterns that take us away from where we truly want to go. Self-examination is key. Some questions that might be helpful in exploring are: Where are our feet going? What direction are we walking in? Are we going from glory to glory, or are we stuck in a pattern of sin or slothfulness? Are our current habits helping us or hindering us from establishing God’s purpose in our lives? Is how we spend our time bringing us closer to God or further away from Him? Self-reflection guards our hearts from wasting our potential and time. It guards our hearts from regret of a wasted life or God forbid hearing those dreadful words at judgment, “depart from me, I never knew you.” 

9. Guard Our Hearts From Distractions.  

“Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.” Distraction will derail our lives quickly. If the enemy can’t defeat us with sin or discourage us with defeat, he will do everything to distract us. Proverbs 17:24 says, “Wisdom is the focus of the discerning, but the eyes of the fool wander to the ends of the earth.” If we are always chasing the next new thing, the next trend, the next buzz word, the bible calls that person a fool. Distractions can also be hobbies that become priorities. We neglect the people or responsibilities God has entrusted to us with the things we want to do, and the result is never good. We should ask God to reveal to us what is distracting us and petition Him to eliminate those distractions. In the final verse of this chapter, Solomon told his son to eliminate distractions. Distractions will cause us to leave our first love for a cheap substitute.  

10. Guard our hearts by offering our bodies a living sacrifice daily. 

Proverbs 4:20-27 does not specifically say this, but in these seven short verses, Solomon mentions the human body 11 times.

Romans 6:12-13 says, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” 

Guarding our hearts will take effort on our end, but praise be to God, we have the empowering of the Holy Spirit to help us. Offering our body and body parts to him daily will protect us from the enemy trying to gain access to our hearts. 

Years ago, a pastor was preaching a message, and I was sitting in the front row. My heart was all over the place. He didn’t know me personally and couldn’t possibly know what I was going through. Mid-sermon, he marched straight over to me on stage, looked straight at me , and said, while clapping after each word said, “GOD WANTS YOUR HEART!” I knew it was the Spirit of God speaking through him straight to me. I share this to encourage anyone reading to surrender their lives to Christ and give him your whole heart. After all, he is the one who made it. And for those who have surrendered, I want to encourage you all to guard yours with all diligence.  

Signing off in Jesus Name. Live Unashamed! 

Love, 

Rocky