Holy Habits for the Seasons of Keeping the Heart
“Keep the heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
As we walk through The Seasons of Keeping the Heart, one way we can grow together is by fixing our hearts on the same Scripture each week. In essence, let us labor side by side in this great work — storing the Word, musing upon it, and allowing it to shape our inner life in unity with one another.
This past Lord’s Day, we saw in Proverbs 4:23 that the heart is the fountain of life. Our thoughts, desires, words, and actions all flow from it. The contents that fill our hearts matter greatly. Richard Baxter once said,
“There is no grace in the heart which doth not first pass through the understanding.”
If our hearts are to be rightly shaped, our understanding must be tested and renewed according to the truth of God’s Word. We heard this from the blessed saint of Psalm 119:11 — “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” — and again from the apostle Paul in Romans 12:2. We must fill the mind with the truth of God’s Word so that our hearts might be formed by it. That is the essence of keeping the heart.
Part of keeping the heart takes place through storing the Word within it. Too often, we skim the Scriptures rather than savor them. Memorization of Scripture is a discipline for keeping the heart — and like all disciplines, it requires vigilance. Memorization tethers the mind to truth; meditation warms that truth into the heart.
Therefore, here are some practical helps for storing and musing upon the Word of God.
Holy Habits of Heart-Keeping
Healthy and holy habits are the means by which a believer keeps the heart in communion with God. These rhythms of grace ready the soul for temptation and fan into flame the embers of faith.
These habits are not complicated or burdensome; they are simple means by which we draw near to God with intention. The goal is not perfection but persistence—small, faithful steps that keep the heart tender toward the Lord and tethered to His truth.
Here are a few ways you might begin:
Write it – Copy the verse by hand each morning in your journal or on a card.
Speak it – Recite it aloud when driving, walking, or gathered with family.
Pray it – Turn its words into prayer for your own heart and others.
Share it – Text or discuss what stands out with your Doxa Community.
Post it – Keep it before your eyes—on your phone lock screen, kitchen sink, or mirror.
Sing it – If possible, find or make a simple tune for the verse.
Each of these connects head → heart → habit.
A Common Word, A Common Heart
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. —Colossians 3:16–17
Paul exhorted the church to let the word of Christ dwell richly among them. Our Lord’s Day gatherings afford us a special, ordained opportunity to enjoy that unity as a fellowship. It is the fruit of shared meditation—an expression of the visible church’s unity, and truly, a means of grace.
However, in this season, I’d like to implore us to strive beyond the Lord’s Day gatherings and to share a common word with a common heart by memorizing a verse of Scripture collectively as a fellowship throughout the week. And here’s why—
When the same Word dwells richly in all of us, the Spirit uses it to knit our hearts together in love and holiness. Our church then moves beyond merely knowing the truth to singing, speaking, and walking in it together.
Conclusion
I hope you will join me in this shared rhythm. This is something my family will prioritize, and I pray you will do the same in your home and together as a fellowship. I am grateful that we are not alone in this work. We have one another to encourage us—and, more importantly, we have God Himself.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
—Jude 24–25
God Himself is the keeper of our hearts. May He who has given us new hearts fill them with His Word, that we might keep them with all vigilance and walk together in the life that flows from Him.