7 Ways to Guard Your Heart
The Bible talks about the heart as the center of all desires, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It is what makes us human. Guarding your heart can be a difficult task because there are many things that come into our lives in everyday life. Many obstacles will tempt, distract, and discourage us from following God’s will for our lives. In this blog post, we will take a look at biblical ways to guard your heart whether it’s on Valentine’s Day or any time of the year so you can pursue God’s plan for your life!

Why Should You Guard Your Heart
The Bible is filled with warnings to guard our hearts. This biblical book of wisdom tells us that the heart has the ability to control a person’s life-changing decisions and actions, so it is important for believers to be aware of their own hearts. The Bible also tells us how we can guard our hearts against sinful temptation by controlling what we consume and letting Jesus Christ rule over every aspect of our lives.
What Guarding Your Heart Means
Since we have established that the Bible tells us to guard our hearts, what does guard your heart mean? The Hebrew definition of ‘heart’ in the Bible is where we have our feelings stored and think our thoughts. Aside from the physical aspect, our inner self extends into our character, intent, or purpose. Guarding your heart means protecting it from sin and lusts that will harm you or lead you astray.
Grab your free Guard Your Heart PDF Printable you can download immediately! Use this as a Guard Your Heart Bible Study with a friend to keep you accountable.
What the Bible Says about Guarding Your Heart
The heart is also where we make our choices, good and bad. Look at it this way — when we talk about spiritual declutter, negative thoughts, how to renew your mind — it all leads to guarding your heart to keep it from these sinful spiritual behaviors. We need the armor of God around our hearts and mind to protect the center of our core being.
Let’s break it down into easy-to-understand meanings of the ‘Heart’ definition. What does guard your heart mean in the Bible? It can be difficult to understand a concept that you can’t see. Let’s review — the ‘heart’ meaning is the seat of three elements:
- Seat of our Mind (thoughts)
- Seat of our Emotions (feelings)
- Seat of our Will (intentions)
How to Guard Your Heart
We’ve established what guarding your heart means, and why it’s important. Let’s now discuss the most practical question to answer: how do I guard my heart? This is a question that many women ask, and that’s why we need a Bible study on the heart.
In order to do this effectively, we need to look into God’s Word for the answers. He can help us discern between good and bad influences on our lives. Some questions to think about are: where in the Bible does it tell us? How does one go about guarding their heart? Let’s start with Psalm 119:9-16.
Guard Your Heart Scripture
Psalm 119:9-16 lays out the blueprint for guarding our hearts. There are 7 principles you can adhere to in order to effectively guard your heart against temptation, lusts, and sin. To make it easy to remember, they all start with a C. Make sure you read the description to get a better picture of how guarding our heart is actually possible if you change your will to be His will. You can also listen to Adrian Roger’s sermon Guard Your Heart on Youtube.
- Cleanse -Psalm 119:9 It’s time for a spring cleaning in your mind. If we confess (agree that it is wrong), He will forgive and cleanse us. He will cleanse us from not only wrong thinking, but our wicked imaginations. Ask yourself this question — do you TRULY want to be perfectly clean or just a little? Search your heart for the answer. It’s a difficult question and few can give their whole hearts to Jesus, but many can thanks to Jesus.
- Consistent – Be determined not to be a double-minded person, which is someone inconsistent with their speaking and actions. James 1:8 states a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. In other words, one day they are one way, another day they are another way. Instead, purpose in your heart that you will not defile yourself. Do you say one thing, and do another out of fear, worry, or anxiety that you may fail?
- Commit – Commit to reading and memorizing scripture and thinking godly thoughts instead of your own negative thoughts. Commit to memorizing His word and apply it to your life. Don’t just memorize and not use what God has given you — His Holy Word. Instead, hide His Word in your heart so you will not sin against Him. Memorizing scripture must be used when we are tempted and during tests, trials and tribulations.
- Connect – Contact the Lord and ask Him to teach you using prayer as a vessel of connecting with the Lord. He is the BEST teacher, the BEST instructor, and the BEST example we can follow. God will guard your heart!
- Communicate – Verbally speak and sing out loud so you can hear yourself praising God and saying His powerful Word. Speaking of God’s word gives us force that can’t be reckoned with. Say out loud your own testimony to yourself to remind you of his goodness.
- Check – Double check your mind and heart to ensure you’re feeding on Jesus’ teachings, not on your dirty or negative mind. It’s easy to dwell on our negative emotions, feelings, and thoughts in our mind. Instead, if we have a clean heart, let’s keep it clean. We must guard our heart from all unclean thinking. Go back to the 1st principle ‘Clean’ if your mind becomes cluttered with nasty thought habits.
- Concentrate – Consistently concentrate on His Word, meditate on His Word, and make time with a quiet place or spot that helps you focus on Him. If we are constantly busy, if we will never have any downtime, we will not have a quiet space in our mind to draw closer to the Lord.
We should always be on alert because our enemy wants us to give in to temptation and sin. Otherwise, we will not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. There are many ways to guard your heart, but the best way is by keeping yourself in the Word of God as much as possible. When you fill yourself up with His truth and love, it becomes impossible for anyone or anything else to take over your life!
Download your free list of Guard Your Heart Scriptures in PDF format!
List of Scriptures on Guarding Your Heart
Here are some key scriptures on Guarding Your Heart. Remember, memorize these Guard Your Heart Bible Verses so when you begin thinking bad things about your life or other people, instead, replace those thoughts with these Guard Your Heart Scriptures. If you find yourself struggling or dwelling on angry or negative thoughts, take a break and do something else like reading the Holy Bible, meditate on Bible Verses, or connect with God in a quiet place.
Psalm 119:9-16 (KJV) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
12 Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.
13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Ezekiel 36:26 – A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Psalms 51:10 – Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:10 – I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Matthew 5:8 – Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Psalms 34:18 – The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Ezekiel 11:19 – And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh:
Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.
Matthew 15:18 – But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
James 4:8 – Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
1 Samuel 16:7 – But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
1 Timothy 1:5 – Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned
As we close, remember that David was a good example — in the Bible, it states that he was a man after God’s heart. Looking at the book of Psalms, we can read how passionate He was for the Lord and how much He loved him. I am hopeful these Guard Your Heart principles will draw you closer to God.