The world at large but America more specifically, lives by the mantra “follow your heart”. Disney often being the one place our mind goes to when we hear that phrase. However, Disney is not the only source of this philosophical thought, it’s in movies of all sorts, books, slogans, memes, music, and blogs. Whether we are willing to admit it or not we all either did or currently are living our lives following our heart, whether practically or confessionally. How many times have you heard people say “just do you”, “do what makes you happy”, “focus on yourself”, and other sayings of similar thought. We either confessionally seek after our own heart’s desires, or we practically do when we do what we think is right in our own eyes, seeking only that which pleases us and that which we think is good for us. Though we often hear the follow up motto “your heart will never lead you astray”, these phrases have no biblical support. In fact, this goes against the very grain of what God has stated in His word. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) In fact, the Hebrew meaning for the word heart often is used to convey the thought of the entire person; it speaks of their emotions, thoughts, intentions, and their will. Often times when we think of the heart, we think only of the emotional side of our person, the place where feelings are formed and where we allow them to be the source through which we are led by. If however, our faculties are all fallen through original sin, then why would we lean on self at all to guide our life, especially the heart? We are told in Holy Scripture, “Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19)
Our hearts are darkened, they are hardened due to the sin nature that we are all born with. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12) We are born in bondage to our sin, we grow in a love for our sin, only furthering the hardness of our heart through our sinful rebellion toward the Lord. The heart needs transformation, it needs to be led by the word of God and not be allowed to lead us. “Trust in Yahweh with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) Therefore, we must commit our hearts to the Lord, and not commit ourselves to our hearts. It’s been said “that the heart of the problem with man is the problem of man’s heart”. We are so self-focused, self-oriented, selfish, that we deny God and ultimately end up denying others as we seek only for self-fulfillment. We see this play out on a horizontal plane with marriages in America today. We get a couple who decide to get married based on a flawed, worldly view of love where it’s all about “what can I get out of this?” The individuals go into marriage based on the feelings they get from being with that person, or because the other individual is attractive and thereby fulfills their heart’s desire for arousal. Then aging comes, beauty fades, and the couple divorce. In the case of the couple driven by the feelings they get from each other, the spouses grow and change with age, and suddenly the feelings stop and so another marriage fails, ending in divorce.
We must follow God, not our hearts. God has stated in His word, “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose trust is Yahweh. And he will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends forth its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor refrain from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) To follow our hearts leads to a life of self, where self is on the throne, and thereby denying God His rightful place on that throne. We seek to steal His glory as we seek only to glorify and satisfy self. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian, you can’t be driven by your heart as a way of life when you are filled with His Spirit. The new birth will issue forth a change of life, a change of heart, you will have new desires, new want-tos, and it changes the life of the believer from one of selfishness to selflessness. May I encourage you today with the word of God as we come to a close. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22) “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)