Don't Follow Your Heart

I could feel a major light bulb moment brewing. I could see their minds buzzing with new truth. Finally someone broke through the silence and asked “So does that mean we can’t even trust who we love?” I shook my head no and told her, “No we cannot rely on our hearts or emotion to tell us what is true” 

The Lie We Buy

“Follow your heart, go with your gut, do whatever makes your heart happy, do what feels right.” These are all lies. Every last one of them. 

When we listen to these lies we fail to recognize we are actually saying “your heart is good and true and pure. You can believe everything it tells you because it is worthy of trust. Let your heart be the honing beacon for everything” Are you paying attention here??? Do you see how insanely absurd these lies are? We are buying into a lie when we rely on our self and our own heart tell us what is true and what to believe.

Our Hearts Cannot be Trusted

The problem with the lie we buy is that our hearts are anything but good. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”  Proverbs 16:25 tells us “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death”

There is nothing good or true about our heart. In fact our heart is actually wicked and deceitful. Our heart will lie to us. Our heart cannot discern what is true and will lead us down a path of destruction.

The Foolish Prayer

Lord don’t let me feel ______ if it’s not your will.

Most likely everyone of us have prayed this prayer at some point. Why is this a foolish prayer? Isn't is a good think to pray? It is a foolish prayer because it focuses on emotion more than it focuses on Jesus and His will. Remember that your heart is a liar?? So why would you use it as a honing beacon for God’s will? When you pray this prayer then you are relying on your deceptive heart to be worthy of all trust. You are trusting in a heart that is untrustworthy. 

The Better Prayer

Lord I feel _______, help me know what to make of this, show me what your will is.

Instead of relying on our heart, we must take our heart to the Lord and ask Him what His will is. Proverbs 3:5 tells us “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” We must put aside what feels right in our gut and center everything around the will of God. We entrust our heart to Him and don’t lean on what we believe to be true.

God and His Word are true.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Since God and His Word are true we must ask the Lord to help us make sense of what we are feeling and surrender everything at His feet. Even when our own heart cannot be trusted, we must rest in God and His Word. God and His Word are holy and true and more than trust worthy. Truth is the very character of God.

The heart is deceptive, your gut can't be trusted, emotions will change with the wind. So please don't follow your heart, follow the One who knows all and is in all and holds everything in His hand. He is worthy of our following.

Photo Credit: Camdiluv