22 Bible Verses About Opening Your Heart to God

Acts 16:14

“One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

Reflection: Paul and his companions sit down by a river outside the city gate, at a place where they expected to find people praying, and speak to the women gathered there. Lydia, a trader in purple goods from Thyatira, already worshipped God, yet Luke still credits the Lord with opening her heart so that she paid attention to Paul. The next verse records what followed: she and her household were baptized, and she urged the group to stay at her house.

Ezekiel 36:26

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Reflection: Ezekiel is told to speak to “the house of Israel” (36:22), and the promise comes between two others: “I will sprinkle clean water on you” in verse 25 and “I will put my Spirit within you” in verse 27. In verse 27 it is God’s Spirit that will “cause you to walk in my statutes.” Through verses 25 to 27 God is the one who sprinkles, cleanses, gives, removes and puts his Spirit within.

Psalm 51:10

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Reflection: The psalm’s heading places it after the prophet Nathan came to David over Bathsheba. David asks God to create a clean heart in him and renew a right spirit within him. The following verses continue in the same direction: “Cast me not away from your presence” and “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”

Ephesians 3:17-19

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Reflection: The verses finish a prayer Paul describes himself making on his knees before the Father (Ephesians 3:14). Verse 16 asks that the Ephesians be strengthened by the Spirit “in your inner being,” and Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith is what that strengthening is for. The request then widens from the heart to knowing a love that “surpasses knowledge.”

Revelation 3:20

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Reflection: The words belong to the letter to the church in Laodicea, a congregation that says “I need nothing” and is told it is “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” The knock follows directly on “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (3:19). The invitation is addressed to anyone who hears, and what is offered is a shared meal.

Matthew 11:28-29

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Reflection: Jesus has just thanked the Father for revealing “these things” to little children rather than to the wise, and said that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals him. The invitation to the weary follows. Here the heart described is Jesus’ own, “gentle and lowly,” and verse 30 adds that his yoke is easy and his burden light.

James 4:8

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Reflection: James quotes “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (4:6) and follows it with a run of commands that begins “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (4:7) and ends with “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (4:10). Drawing near comes with cleansing hands and purifying hearts. He addresses the readers as “double-minded,” people whose hearts are divided.

Jeremiah 29:13

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

Reflection: Jeremiah sends the words in a letter from Jerusalem to the people Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile in Babylon (29:1), and the surrounding verses promise their return when “seventy years are completed for Babylon” (29:10). Seeking God with all the heart is set within that promise: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you” (29:12), and verse 14 adds “I will be found by you.”

Hosea 10:12

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”

Reflection: Hosea uses farming language throughout the passage: Ephraim is a calf put to the yoke, Judah must plow. Fallow ground is land left unplowed, and breaking it up is the work needed before sowing. Verse 13 shows what Israel had done instead: “You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Reflection: Proverbs 3 opens “My son,” and here the father contrasts trust in the Lord “with all your heart” with leaning on one’s own understanding. Verse 7 restates the contrast: “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” The whole heart is given to trust, and the promise attached is straight paths.

Psalm 62:8

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”

Reflection: Earlier in the psalm the psalmist speaks to his own soul: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence” (62:5). In verse 8 he turns to the people and tells them to pour out their hearts before God, and gives the reason in the same line: “God is a refuge for us.”

Lamentations 2:19

“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.”

Reflection: The verse comes from a lament over Jerusalem, and the call is to cry out at night and pour out the heart “like water” before the Lord. The prayer it asks for is specific: lifted hands “for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.”

Psalm 139:23-24

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Reflection: Psalm 139 opens with a statement, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me!”, and closes with a request for the same thing. David asks God to search his heart, test his thoughts, find any “grievous way,” and lead him in the way everlasting.

Philippians 4:7

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Reflection: The previous verse begins “do not be anxious about anything” and tells the Philippians to bring everything to God “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” Verse 7 is the promise attached to that instruction.

Psalm 34:18

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Reflection: The line before it says that when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them (34:17). Verse 18 names who he is near to: the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit.

Joel 2:13

“And rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

Reflection: The command begins in verse 12 as the Lord’s own words: “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning,” and in them the Lord sets torn garments against torn hearts. The prophet then gives the reason to return, the Lord’s character, and verse 14 leaves the outcome open: “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent.”

Isaiah 55:7

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Reflection: The call comes just after “Seek the Lord while he may be found” (55:6) and asks the wicked to leave both a way and thoughts behind. Verse 8 explains the pardon by contrast: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” The same chapter opens with an invitation to come and buy “without money and without price” (55:1).

Lamentations 3:40

“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!”

Reflection: The poem turns from asking why anyone should complain about the punishment of sin (3:39) to self-examination. The next verse joins heart and body: “Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven,” and verse 42 gives the words to say: “We have transgressed and rebelled.”

1 John 1:9

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Reflection: John places the verse between two warnings: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1:8) and “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar” (1:10). The forgiveness rests on God being “faithful and just.”

1 Samuel 16:7

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”

Reflection: Samuel has come to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king and, seeing Eliab, thinks “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” The Lord’s answer rejects Eliab and sets what people see against what the Lord sees. At the start of the chapter the Lord had told Samuel that he had also rejected Saul as king (16:1).

Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Reflection: The word of God is said to discern “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Verse 13 moves from the word to God himself: “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” The letter follows this with an invitation to “draw near to the throne of grace” (4:16).

Matthew 5:8

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

Reflection: Jesus is on the mountain teaching his disciples (Matthew 5:1-2), and this is one of the blessings that open his teaching. The promise attached to a pure heart is seeing God. Psalm 24:3-4 asks who may stand in God’s holy place and answers, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”