Follow Your Heart

From time to time I’ll be talking on subjects that follow my Big Picture article.  What I’m sharing today is part of that message.  If you haven’t read that yet, check it out in my previous blog.
How often in a day do you come across the expression, ‘Follow your heart’?  If you watch TV, read fiction, even Christian material, you’ll be surprised at how often you hear it.  Well, what do you think?  Should we be following our hearts to know who we should marry, what career path we should take, where we should live or what friends we should keep?  Well, we probably do make many decisions in our lives by simply following our hearts.  Afterall, it’s what we’ve been taught.  We’ve been taught to believe that there’s something purer, deeper and closer to the truth that resides in the area that we call the heart and the soul. 
Should we be following our hearts, though?  What do the Scriptures say about the hearts of people?  Consider Jeremiah 17:9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?’  Whoa!  That doesn’t sound like somewhere we should be going for guidance and direction for our lives.  You might say, ‘Well, I’m a believer and He’s renewing my mind (and heart)’.  Well, that’s true.  He is renewing our minds day to day.  He’s remaking our lives.  However, it’s not a finished process.  We are a work in progress.  We’re are being renewed, but we’re not yet completely renewed.  Psalm 94:11 says in relation to the thoughts of our minds, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.’  We won’t be fully renewed until we see Him face-to-face.  (1 Jn. 3:2)  For now we still need His leading.
The next question is do we really know all of the facts?  Do we know enough to make an informed decision about many complex issues?  Do we know the future?  Do we know the hearts and minds and intentions of people whom we’re thinking about connecting with, working with, joining our lives to, etc.?  There’s so much that we don’t know.  How can we make good decisions until we know all the facts?
I would like to suggest that this is a major reason that our world is in so much trouble today.  We’re being taught to follow our hearts.  We’re taught that deep in our hearts we know what’s best for us . . . that our hearts know the truth.  The heart is the seat of emotions and feelings.  The question, ‘What do you feel?’ seems like a deeper question to us than, ‘What do you think?’.  That’s another area where we need to be cautious.  We assume that feelings are ‘deep’ and therefore of more value in making decisions than other sources.  Yet, Jeremiah 17:9 doesn’t seem to support that hypothesis.  We seem to think that feelings trump truth.  We think that we can have our own truth based on our feelings . . . your truth vs. my truth.  Much new ‘truth’ is being invented in our day.  We each seem to make up our own truth.  All the while, our world is becoming more confused and more evil each day as we trust our hearts to lead us.
In reality, God’s truth trumps it all.  He not only knows all of the facts that we don’t know, but He knows the way that He wants us to go.  (He knows our hearts).  Further, He’s willing to tell us if we’ll ask.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.’  He knows the way for you, and He’s willing to tell you.  Isn’t that better than following our own hearts into trouble as the world seems to be doing in our day?
Read His Word. Get to know His truth. Pray. Ask Him to show you’re the way. Listen for Him. Then, walk the way that He leads you. Don’t trust your heart. Trust His.