What Does the Bible Mean by Guard Your Heart and Mind?

All believers in Jesus, at one time or another, experience weakness. It could be that we are tired, sick, experiencing loss of some kind, etc. It is often during these times when the enemy attempts to manipulate those weaknesses. It is during times of weakness that you really need to guard your heart and mind so that you can experience God’s peace and not allow negative thinking to take root. Learn how to set a watchman on the wall to protect your peace!

Guard Your Heart and Mind In Times of Weakness and Weariness

When I had first written this post, I had been experiencing a real lack of sleep. We had our two dogs, one for 7 years and one for 14 years (one was 14 and the other 15 and they have since passed away and we now have a very rambunctious Olde English Bulldog) and all of a sudden, after starting my blog, they had begun waking me up in the middle of the night, every night.

I am a very light sleeper, unlike my husband who sleeps like a rock. So I wake up at even the slightest of noises.

Our older dog was beginning to develop dementia and would move to various parts of the room throughout the night and his nails hit the hardwood floors like tap shoes! Then the other dog had skin allergies and had to lick his paws for what seems like an eternity. He did it so long it woke me out of a sound sleep. I am convinced that is the most annoying sound on the planet!

Once I am awake, my brain thinks it is time to start thinking of EVERYTHING I have been too busy to think about during the day. Next thing I know, an hour has passed and I am still awake!

After this goes on for DAYS, it leaves me mentally exhausted and physically worn down. I find it difficult to focus during the day and even my prayers seem to change.

There are so many times I will be in prayer and just throw up my hands and say “Sorry Lord, I am just wiped out. I’ve got nothing! I don’t even know what to say!”

And although I know the Holy Spirit will intercede for me during those times when I have no words, after some time exhaustion like this can lead to feeling depressed because you feel like you just can’t keep up with life!

You feel like you let everyone down because they want to do things and you just don’t have the energy. You feel like life is just getting away from you. That depressed feeling then just begins to affect everything else and starts this vicious cycle.

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Setting a “Watchman on the Wall” to Guard Your Mind and Heart

It is so important during these times that you guard your heart and mind because if not, it leaves you open to negative thoughts which can invade every aspect of your life.

Proverbs 4:23 says:

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

ESV

The Hebrew word for “guard” here is “natsar” and it means “to keep, observe, guard with fidelity, watchman”.

So how do you set a guard over your heart above all else?

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The same way Israel guarded what was important to them and to God. Set a watchman!

The Word of God says out of the abundance of the heart “everything you do flows from it”!

Everything I do flows out of my heart! When I fail to set a guard, a watchman over my heart, I let the enemy storm right in through the walls!! It is like leaving a city unguarded from its enemies!

What are you doing to set a watchman on the wall, a guard, over your heart in all the issues of life? What are you doing to guard your mind and your thought life?

When was the last time you checked your watchman?

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Guard Your Heart and Mind Through the Peace of God

Philippians 4:6-7 says:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

NKJV

The peace of God will guard your heart and your mind IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving!

It is really THAT simple!

We have direct access to God almighty. We can approach Him at any time. Yet so often we sit around and wait for the enemy to attack before we run to Him.

We have failed to stand firm. we have failed to put on the whole armor of God and, many times, we even take on a complaining spirit griping about the situation we are in!

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Guard Your Heart and Mind When the Enemy Strikes

We have failed to set a watchman on the wall. We wait until the weakness comes, we wait until the attack comes.

Set a guard and have God’s peace!

Have God’s peace in your family, have God’s peace in your personal life, have God’s peace in your spiritual life! Going to God should be your first line of defense, not your last resort!

I wasn’t doing anything to prevent the attack from coming until AFTER it took place. By then I was exhausted and worn out.

What an ingenious plan for an enemy isn’t it? Wait until the army is exhausted and worn out and then wage the battle! That devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour! (1 Peter 5:8)

I was exhausted but he didn’t sleep! He prowled!

I need to seek God’s peace before there is a lack of sleep! When we are in ministry of any kind, the enemy is going to attack our weaknesses. Mine is lack of sleep! I knew that but I didn’t cover myself in prayer for it until AFTER it was an issue!

I could feel God telling me ‘You did not keep the mind of Christ and were relying on your own human judgments! You tried to fight the battle once it began instead of keeping the enemy away to begin with!’

The grace of God would have been sufficient for me had I gone to Him to begin with.

Going to God should be your first line of defense, not your last resort! Click To Tweet

I Failed to Set a Watchman Over My Spiritual Heart

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

Luke 6:45 ESV

My heart and my mind affected everything, especially blogging!

I told a friend I was tapped out! I couldn’t write! Topics were not the problem; I had ideas but the words wouldn’t come! I had a block and nothing I did worked!

Because my writing flows from my heart, the fact that I did not have a guarded heart also affected my mind because it allowed negative thoughts to enter in! I began to think maybe my blogging wasn’t good enough. I thought maybe I really WASN’T called to blog.

You see how that worked?

Because I didn’t recognize the enemy causing those disruptions in my sleep, that then caused me to fail to go to God with it. As that spiraled into exhaustion it then started a thought process that led to me thinking I wasn’t called to the ministry I was in. Wow! The words “well, that escalated quickly” come to mind, but it is SO true!

Satan loves to attack our thinking when we don’t protect our hearts and many times it is because we left our minds and thoughts unguarded! It flows both ways! He can attack our hearts through our thinking and our thinking through our unguarded hearts!

Be sure to always guard your mind and heart each and every moment because the enemy can slip in THAT fast!

Set a watchman on the wall and don’t wait for the attack to act!!

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Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved