In this post I will talk about how to guard your heart as a Christian. I have included some thought provoking questions that I hope will help you evaluate different areas of your life.
You, dear reader, have a heart in your chest that beats around 100,000 times per day and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood daily. God perfectly and masterfully designed your physical heart.
However, when God speak about the heart, He is actually referring to your spirt.
” Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23
God says our heart or spirt is where EVERYTHING flows from.
So, lets dive into the ways we can guard our heart/spirit.
How to guard your heart as a Christian:
- Put God 1st- make your relationship with God your #1 priority.
- Filter the content you consume – social media, music, tv, etc.
- Guard your thoughts- take every thought captive.
- Choose who you spend your time with wisely- surround yourself with people who push you toward God.
- Don’t put yourself in tempting situations- if you know a certain environment is going to lead you into sin…flee!
Put God 1st - Prioritize your relationship with God
Get close to God. Give Him the first part of your day. Instead of going straight to your phone as soon as you wake up, pray, and get in the word. Your Heart needs and thrives off of the word of God!
As an adult, it is your responsibly to filter what comes into your life. When you are in constant communication with God it becomes easier to discern what should and should not be a part of your life.
Do you treasure what God treasures and what Jesus taught? Or are you allowing the “treasures” of the world outshine what God loves?
When you get to know God better you will start to understand what He treasures.
QUESTION TO CONSIDER: How can you incorporate more time with God into your day?
Prioritize your heart over pleasure
Filer the content you consume - Protect your eyes and ears
Do you remember being little and your parents covering your eyes when an inappropriate scene came on tv?
Well, that is more or less what we should be doing for ourselves as adults. The entertainment industry and social media platforms are overloaded with perverse content.
As a result, we literally have to avert our eyes from images/videos that we know are dishonoring to God.
” …I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes” Psalm 101:2-3
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
Does the content you consume add value to your life?
As Christians we need to guard our hearts from anything that is going to pull us away from the will and way of God.
Who are you letting influence you? Guard your heart.
Popular people on social media are dubbed influencers because that’s what they do. Influencers, whether you realize it or not they inspire you to dress a certain way, they encourage you to try a product they recommend etc.
Similarly, the people you spend time with influence your behavior. Your friends have opinions, interests, habits etc. that will either harm or help your heart.
QUESTION TO CONSIDER:
Are the people you spend time with pushing you toward or away from God?
Guard your thoughts - take every thought captive
It’s easy to let your mind run wild with a fearful, anxious, or lustful thought. Do not let your mind runaway with sinful thoughts. Recognize the thought and stop it in its tracks.
Paul says: “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2Corinthians 10:5
In Mark 7:21-23 Jesus said, ” For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Control Your environment - Where do you go ?
“Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor the left; turn your foot from evil” Proverbs 4:26-27
There are places and situations we don’t belong in as Christians. For this reason, you must take control over your environment.
In other words, don’t put yourself in a situation where you know you may be tempted to sin.
QUESTION TO CONSIDER:
Is your current environment somewhere you can thrive?
the condition of your heart determines the direction of your life
- Dr. Charles Stanley
God is concerned with the state of your heart
In our society, most people are highly concerned with the outward appearance of a person.
Good news, God is not concerned with how you look on the outside, but He is concerned with how your heart looks.
” Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1Samuel 16:7
Post Summary - how to guard your heart as a christian
- Put God 1st- make your relationship with God your #1 priority. Give Him the first part of your day.
- Filter the content you consume – social media, music, tv, etc Unfollow accounts/ stop watching certain shows that are dishonoring to God.
- Guard your thoughts- take every thought captive. Don’t let your mind run wild.
- Choose who you spend your time with wisely- surround yourself with people who push you toward the Lord.
- Don’t put yourself in tempting situations- if you know a certain environment is going to lead you into sin…flee! Take control over your environment.
I trust this post has given you ideas on how to guard your heart as a Christian.
xx Kristen
Additional resources about what it means/ how to guard your heart as a Christian:
You can read an awesome article about what it MEANS to guard your heart HERE.
