Have you heard of some sayings that feel so good when you hear them, and even think they are Scripture?
Guess what? Some of them aren’t, and through this three-part series, we will only look at three. In this reflection, we will focus on “follow your heart.” I only published this one here.
The other two will address 1)”Being good is good enough” -34 minutes to 52 minutes, and 2)Everything happens for a reason – 44 minutes to 57 minutes, which I will not publish at this time. But, you can check them out by clicking on each one of them to watch.
I bet you’ve heard of that too. Haven’t you?
“Follow your heart” isn’t Scripture. The Bible doesn’t say anything at all about following our hearts.
Read Proverbs 3:5,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Our Hears Are Easily Deceived
From the beginning of our human existence, our hearts have shown to be easily deceived.
Start with the book of Genesis (the account of the beginnings of the whole cosmos). Read the story of Adam and Eve’s temptation (Genesis 3).
What happens in Genesis 3 is very similar to what goes on in our hearts: the battle between good and evil.
According to the above scripture, the one who initiates this battle is Satan, also referred to as the devil, the enemy of God, the evil one, the tempter.
Adam and Eve fell into temptation because they chose to listen to their hearts instead of God’s Word, which had forbidden them to eat from the tree.
[bctt tweet=”Temptations, which begin in the heart, are triggered through what we see, hear, or experience. ” username=”emmanuelnaweji”]
Adam and Eve, after looking again at the forbidden, the following happened: 1)they saw that the tree was good for food (useful according to them), 2)the tree was a delight to the eyes (pleasant), and 3)the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
Ok. Here’s how we could translate the above:
- Following your heart seems to be a good thing.
- Following your heart is a delight to the eyes and a pleasant thing to do.
- Following your heart makes you wise.
The danger with that is what the Bible describes in the following lines.
The Behavior of the Human Heart
The human heart is deceitful and sick!
Yes, that’s exactly what Jeremiah tells us,
The heat is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
[bctt tweet=”Do not then trust your heart, on its own, a moral compass. ” username=”emmanuelnaweji”]
Here’s the reason why.
The heart is where your treasure is. Let me explain this a little bit more.
Whatever it is you invest in more of yourself and what you have, that’s where your heart will be.
Jesus alluded on that saying the following:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 15:34.
The point here is that wherever you’ve invested so much of yourself, that’s where your heart will be. And, if you choose to follow your heart, then, you’ll only end up where your heart is.
Now, if your treasure is anywhere else rather than God, and you follow your heart, you’ll end up in other places instead of being with God.
Another reason why following our heart isn’t good for us has to do with what Jesus said,
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:19-20.
Your heart being sick, deceitful, and hard to understand, the bottom line is that we should not follow our heart.
Instead, we have to lead our heart. Here’s how you can do it.
Lead Your Heart, Do Not Follow It
The first thing we all have to do is to acknowledge that our heart is sick and cannot be trusted as a moral compass.
The above lines told us why.
The next step we should take in leading our heart is to choose to 1)surrender, 2)humble ourselves, and 3)obey God and God’s Word.
In summary, we lead our heart by fulfilling the greatest commandment as stated in Matthew 22:37-39,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
That’s how we lead our heart, which is by choosing to surrender everything, including our heart, to God.
We don’t stop there. In addition, we invite God to come and dwell in our heart.
If there’s a place in us where God wants to dwell, it’s our hearts. So, surrender, and invite God into the core of who you are as a human being: your heart.
In Conclusion
Do not follow your heart. But, lead your heart. The way to do it is by letting God dwell into your heart, which empowers you to love God with everything you are and have. As a result, you also show God’s love to others. At the end of the day, you’re the leader of your heart with Christ ruling over you.
