19 Bible Verses About Guarding Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Reflection: A father is instructing his son, and two verses earlier he tells the son to keep the father’s words “within your heart.” The lines that follow move outward from the heart to the body: keep corrupt talk far from your lips, fix your gaze directly before you, “keep your foot from evil” (Proverbs 4:24-27). The King James Version renders the verse “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Luke 6:45

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Reflection: Jesus has just said that “each tree is recognized by its own fruit” (Luke 6:44), and here he applies the picture to people. What a person says shows what has been stored up in the heart, good or evil. The last sentence makes the mouth the evidence: it “speaks what the heart is full of.”

Matthew 15:18-19

“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

Reflection: Pharisees and teachers of the law from Jerusalem had asked why Jesus’ disciples ate without washing their hands. Jesus told the crowd that what comes out of the mouth is what defiles, and when Peter asked him to explain, he told the disciples that food goes into the stomach and out of the body, while what defiles a person comes from the heart (Matthew 15:10-17). He ends by returning to the Pharisees’ question: “eating with unwashed hands does not defile them” (Matthew 15:20). Earlier, answering the Pharisees, he quotes Isaiah against them: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8).

Matthew 6:21

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Reflection: Jesus has told his hearers not to store up treasures on earth, “where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,” and to store them in heaven instead. The heart goes where the treasure is. A few lines later he states the same choice as a matter of service: “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

Proverbs 28:26

“Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.”

Reflection: Where the NIV has “those who trust in themselves,” the King James Version has “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” The other half of the proverb sets walking in wisdom against that trust; those who walk in wisdom are “kept safe.”

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Reflection: The Lord has just contrasted two people: one “whose heart turns away from the Lord,” like a bush in the desert, and one who trusts in the Lord, like a tree planted by water (Jeremiah 17:5-8). The question at the end of the verse, “Who can understand it?”, is answered by the Lord in the next line: “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct” (Jeremiah 17:10).

James 1:14-15

“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Reflection: The verse before says no one should claim “God is tempting me,” because God “cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). James places the start of temptation in a person’s own desire and then traces its course: desire conceives, gives birth to sin, and sin grown to full size gives birth to death.

Psalm 139:23-24

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Reflection: The psalm opens with “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me” (Psalm 139:1) and closes by asking God to do it again. The request comes straight after lines of hatred for God’s enemies (Psalm 139:19-22), and the psalmist asks God to look for “any offensive way” in himself as well. The NIV’s “anxious thoughts” puts the psalmist’s worries, as well as his sins, under God’s examination.

Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Reflection: The word of God is compared to a double-edged sword that divides soul from spirit and joints from marrow, and it judges “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The next verse moves from the word to God himself: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).

Philippians 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Reflection: Paul writes this to the church at Philippi. The verb for “guard” is phroureo, the word used when the governor of Damascus “had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me” (2 Corinthians 11:32). Here the peace of God stands guard over hearts and minds, and it follows prayer and petition “with thanksgiving” in every situation.

Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Reflection: Paul moves directly from the guarded heart and mind to what the mind should dwell on: whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. The next verse adds practice to thought, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice,” and the peace of verse 7 returns as a person: “the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).

Psalm 119:11

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

Reflection: This stanza of the psalm opens with a question: “How can a young person stay on the path of purity?” The answer is “By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9). The psalmist seeks God “with all my heart” and keeps God’s word in the heart as a defence against sin.

Colossians 3:2

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Reflection: The verse before gives the same instruction for the heart: “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is” (Colossians 3:1). Paul’s reason is what has already happened to his readers: they have been raised with Christ, and their life “is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). A few lines later he names the earthly things to put to death, among them lust, evil desires and greed (Colossians 3:5).

2 Timothy 2:22

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Reflection: Paul writes to Timothy using the picture of a large house, where articles are set apart “for special purposes” once they are cleansed (2 Timothy 2:20-21). The instruction runs in two directions, away from the evil desires of youth and toward righteousness, faith, love and peace. It is also done in company, “along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Reflection: Jesus says this to his disciples at the evening meal just before the Passover (John 13:1-2), and the chapter opens with the same command: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). The peace he gives follows his promise that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). The verse ends with an instruction as well as a gift: “do not be afraid.”

Psalm 51:10

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Reflection: The psalm begins “Have mercy on me, O God” and asks repeatedly to be washed and cleansed (Psalm 51:2, 7). In this verse the request becomes creation: God is asked to make a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit. The next line asks, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

Ezekiel 36:26

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Reflection: The Lord is speaking to Israel through Ezekiel, promising to gather the people from the nations, bring them back to their land and cleanse them “from all your idols” (Ezekiel 36:24-25). A heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh. The next verse gives the result: “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees” (Ezekiel 36:27).

James 4:8

“Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Reflection: James has traced the fights among his readers to “your desires that battle within you” (James 4:1). The command pairs the hands, what a person does, with the heart, what a person wants. He calls his readers “double-minded” a few lines after warning that “friendship with the world means enmity against God” (James 4:4).

Matthew 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Reflection: Jesus pronounces this blessing among others when he sits down on a mountainside to teach his disciples (Matthew 5:1-2). Psalm 24:3-4 asks who may stand in the Lord’s holy place and answers, “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” Jesus attaches a further promise to the pure heart: those who have one “will see God.”