How to Change Your Heart

We talked about changing your heart and changing your life, and the importance of that in becoming a Christian. It is a long and major process with many steps, and that last post is only a small part of that change.

Why should you change your heart? It's a way to better yourself and bring you closer to God. YOU must be the one wanting to change and genuinely want to make that effort.

What must you try to change?

• Love of self (selfishness)
• Love of money
• Lack of love for God

What needs to be changed? Your heart

Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
~Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

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. 

~Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)

How do you choose to change?

1. Identify behavior that needs to be changed
2. Admit that those behaviors are not Godly
3. Locate verses that address the problem behavior (the youth leaders will help you find some if you ask for help)
4. Memorize that verse
5. Deepen the imprint of God's word on your heart (this means that you need to make deliberate steps to follow God and His word)

Things to think about when changing:

• Guard your heart and mind (Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ~Proverbs 4:23 [NIV])
• Your conducts (“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”~Jeremiah 17:10 [NIV])
• Your talks (Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. ~Proverbs 4:24 [NIV])

Remember, guard your heart so it is full of good, not evil.

³⁴ You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. ³⁵ A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. ³⁶ And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. ³⁷ The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”
~Matthew 12 (NLT)
 

 ¹⁸ But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. ¹⁹ For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. ²⁰ These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
~Matthew 15 (NLT)