How to Pray for Your Heart
Proverbs 4:23 commands believers, “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” The reason for this warning is obvious; our hearts, as John Calvin wrote long ago, are “idol-producing factories.” Jeremiah the prophet wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Solomon noted, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered” (Prov. 28:26). With these sage warnings, we need to be sure that we keep our hearts!
How can we keep our hearts? God’s Word offers numerous verses about our hearts that can be turned into prayers for our hearts. We need to pray for our hearts so that we may be like David, “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). Here are some examples that I pray for the hearts of those under my care daily.
A Clean Heart—“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). This prayer is situated in one of David’s repentance psalms, perhaps written after his sin with Bathsheba. He cries out to God for cleansing. In the 139th Psalm, he echoed that prayer in a different framework, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (139:23-24). We too need daily searching, daily cleansing; we need a clean heart.
A Pure Heart—Just as we need a clean heart, so we need a pure heart. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Purity of heart is not being perfect; it’s having our hearts so in tune with the Lord that we can see His work in every situation. When Jacob wrestled with the angel, God so changed his heart that he could see Esau as “the face of God” (Gen. 33:10). God’s work changed his heart. We too need to pray for a pure heart.
A Merry Heart—In a culture obsessed with self, people focus on their problems and seem to go around with sad hearts; yet God gives great promises for those who have a merry heart. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like. medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones” (see also Prov. 15:13, 15). A merry heart is a gift from God that changes the perspective of the one praying. Ask God for a merry heart!
Purpose of Heart—Barnabas was a great preacher of the gospel and a godly encourager to the saints. He came to the new church in Antioch and ministered there, “When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord” (Acts 11:23). Purpose of heart allows us to stand consistently for God in the midst of an evil generation. When Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon, they were intended to eat the king’s food—some of which would be forbidden to the Jewish young men. Daniel 1:8 tells us of Daniel’s response, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies.” His purpose of heart settled the cultural question and allowed him to stand for the Lord. How we too need purpose of heart to continue in our spiritual growth! Ask the Lord for purpose of heart.
A Loyal Heart—God makes mighty promises and keeps them, for He is a promise-keeping God. His prophet told king Asa, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chron. 16:9). Loyalty of heart is equal mixtures of faith in God and the fear of the Lord before God (the realization that I will give an account to God on the DAY—2 Cor. 5:10). We need loyal hearts before God both to see His power in our lives and to be useful to Him.
Largeness of Heart—One of my favorite statements about Solomon is found in 1 Kings 4:29, “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore.” What a precious gift! Largeness of heart may mean many things, but one idea seems to be that he could accept others in the faith who differed (as in Romans 15:7). We need to be largehearted people to receive brothers and sisters in the faith, to love others who are different so that we might introduce them to Christ as Lord, and to think outside of our narrow confines and see the larger world as God sees it.
A Discerning Heart—When God appeared to Solomon and told him to ask whatever he wanted, Solomon asked for an understanding heart to discern between good and bad (1 Kings 3:9). If believers need any one asset today, it is and insightful and discerning heart (Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9). We need God’s discernment to walk wisely in this world.
As you begin to pray specifically for these requests, these verses will help you to focus your heart on God’s things, seek what pleases God, and let your heart—the wellspring of your life—become a heart like God’s own heart.
Stan May, Ph. D.
Pastor