Should I Follow My Heart?
You’re joking right? The answer is no. No. No. No. A thousand times no.
Why are you still reading? The answer hasn’t changed. You most assuredly should NOT follow your heart.
Oh, you want to read more? Fine.
But Everyone Says…
Some sins the world leads us to are clear and blatant. Sexual sins, hatred, greed, etc. Others are sneakier. “Follow Your Heart” is one of those. Friends, it’s all over t-shirts, social media posts, TV shows, movies, and I’ve even seen it in books by Christian authors.
But following your heart is wrong. It’s anti-biblical. Let’s start with some words from the book of Jeremiah.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
-Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
Just to get some perspective, according to Biblical scholars, this was written over 2,600 years ago. It was spot on then, and it’s still true today.
Breaking Down Jeremiah’s Words
We know the Bible does not have errors. So, let’s take a deeper look into what we read in this verse.
“The heart is deceitful.”
Agreed. Have you ever tried to justify to yourself something you know you should not do, but something inside you wants to do it? That’s the deceit of the heart. Have you ever “followed your heart” and ended up with consequences you did NOT want? That’s because your heart deceived you into believing it would work out…except it didn’t.
“Deceitful above all things.”
Certainly. We give the devil a lot of credit, and it’s true he is responsible for an immeasurable amount of evil. But we are most easily deceived by the desires of our own heart. Nothing has greater power to lead us down the wrong path. There are no worse lies than the lies we tell ourselves.
“Beyond cure.”
You cannot heal the sickness in your heart. I cannot heal the sickness in mine. As long as we live in these earthly bodies, it will always have some tendency to deceive us. The only complete removal of any opportunity to be deceived into sin by our hearts will come when we enter our eternal home with God.
“Who can understand it?”
Beloved, we can never understand all the possible ways our hearts can deceive us. It happens every day, temptation after temptation doing its very best to trick us into following the path of sin.
Enter Jesus
Lest we think this whole idea comes from the Old Testament, let’s hear from Jesus.
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”
-Matthew 15:19-20a ESV
Yeah, I’m not interested in following my heart if it’s the source of all that filth. I appreciate Jesus letting us know that.
So, what should we do then?
Jesus told us.
The Simple Difference that Makes All the Difference
Remember what Jesus told Philip?
“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.””
-John 1:43 ESV
Beloved, let’s be very clear here.
Jesus said, “Follow me”. Not follow your lying, self-centered, lustful, prideful, jealous, irrational heart. People heeding the world’s advice to “follow your heart” has led to countless divorces, murders, sexual assaults, affairs, wars, robberies, suicides, examples of slavery, totalitarian regimes, and many more evils than any of us could list.
We need to follow Jesus and let Him change our hearts!
And yet, a warning.
Beyond Cure
Remember the words of Jeremiah.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
-Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
The heart is beyond cure. Now, you may quote for me the words of Jesus in John 1:37 that “nothing is impossible for God”. And you would be right. Nothing is impossible for God.
And God also says, “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.” A heart of flesh is one that is capable of love and compassion, but it’s not cured.
God gives us free will. And with free will remains our heart’s ability to deceive us. Each of us still lives in “this body of death.”
The warning is this. Yes, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us the opportunity to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And this will give us access to His great power to often see the deceitfulness of our hearts. But we must never assume we are immune to falling. We must be ever vigilant.
The Final Words
How do we remain ever vigilant?
“Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”
-Proverbs 4:23 AMPC
We must keep and guard our hearts. We must manage, control, direct, and instruct our hearts in doing what is right and keeping from what is wrong. We must guard them from even turning in the direction of sin. And the way to do so is simple.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
-John 15:4-5 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
-Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
When we remain continuously connected to Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, and when we follow the words of Jesus, then we can remain vigilant, avoid the weaker influence of our deceitful hearts, and bear much fruit for Him.
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Love you Jesus follower!