Why is guarding your heart important?

TL;DR:

Our hearts serve as the gatekeepers to our lives. When we guard our hearts, we are guarding our lives—including our beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, and actions .

Guarding your heart is essential because it influences every part of your life, including your beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, and actions. The Bible emphasizes the importance of seeking God with all your heart (Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:13) and being vigilant in guarding it to avoid pride and spiritual hardening (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:34). We are encouraged to guard our hearts by surrounding ourselves with edifying relationships and submitting our thoughts to Christ (Proverbs 27:17; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Hebrews 3:12-13). A hardened heart can lead to deception and disobedience, which is why it is crucial to maintain a close relationship with God through prayer, worship, and studying His Word. Ultimately, guarding your heart allows you to live in obedience, peace, and forgiveness, allowing God's truth to transform your life.

from the old testament

A hard heart is rooted in pride. Time after time, Pharaoh hardened his heart against God, which resulted in plagues befalling Egypt until he finally relented (Exodus 7:22; 8:32; 9:34).
After being freed from Egypt, the Israelites hardened their hearts toward the Lord by grumbling and complaining against Him while they were in the desert. They wandered in the wilderness forty years (Numbers 32:13).
We should keep our hearts and minds stayed on the Lord : "But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29).
In Psalms, David exhorts his readers to not harden their hearts as the Israelites did in the wilderness (Psalm 95:7- 11).
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." If we consciously guard our heart, we will naturally live more wisely.
A hard heart is a result of pride, which the Bible tells us is the precursor to destruction: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
Instead of letting our heart be led astray through unedifying relationships, we must seek relationships that are mutually edifying and that encourage us to press on in our faith (Proverbs 27:17).

from the new testament

True life is found in Jesus alone (John 10:10). Guarding our hearts against all else is essential.
Guarding our hearts helps us abide in Jesus and vice-versa (John 15:1- 11).
To not be deceived, we must submit to God so we may become wise: "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18).
We must also guard our hearts by being selective with whom we spend our time (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Guarding your heart includes taking ungodly thoughts captive before they have a chance to lodge themselves into our hearts and influence our actions (2 Corinthians 10:3–5).
Rather than allowing bad influences into our lives, we should seek relationships where we can “stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24— -25).
A hard heart makes it incredibly difficult to obey Christ; it means we are susceptible to deception (James 1:14-17 ).

implications for today

We guard our hearts so we can stay attentive to God’s truth, so we do not harden our hearts, and so we do not let sin lead us astray. A primary way we can guard our hearts is by studying God's Word and maintaining fellowship with Him through prayer and worship. Grounding ourselves in God's truth and a close relationship with Him leads to a transformation of our hearts and lives by the power of God’s Spirit. If we do not guard our heart, we will be exposed to negative outside influences, thoughts, or forces that seek to lead us astray. We will be formed by our emotions or the flesh. These can lead to many problems , the biggest one being that our hearts can become hardened to the Lord’s leading. When we seek the Lord with all our heart and soul, our hearts soften to the Lord. Such a heart involves obedience (1 John 2:3- 6), peace (Isaiah 26:3; Proverbs 3:5- 6), and release—forgiving others as we have been forgiven (Colossians 3:13). When we guard our hearts, we are empowered to be doers of the Word, not just hearers (James 1:22). Ultimately, the state of our heart determines our actions .

understand

Our hearts shape our beliefs, attitudes, and actions.
We must guard our hearts against pride, sin, and worldly influences.
Guarding our hearts allows us to be shaped by God, not our flesh nor the world.

reflect

How are you guarding your heart from sinful influences that might lead you away from the Lord?
In what areas of your life do you need to seek God with all your heart and soul to avoid spiritual hardening?
How can you surround yourself with edifying relationships and influences that encourage your faith?

engage

Why is guarding our hearts so important? What does it look like and what does it not look like?
How does guarding our hearts influence our actions?
How can we encourage each other in maintaining a heart that seeks God and actively guards it against that which could lead us astray?