Stop Following Your Heart
Some of the worst advice that I hear these days often starts with this statement, “just follow your heart.” This advice comes from both Christians and non-Christians alike. But maybe the most damage is done when it comes from believers who would rather feel supportive of a friend than hold them to a higher standard of living. Most of us have experienced that moral dilemma of either standing up for what we believe in or following the ways of our culture. I get it, it’s hard to step into a controversial conversation with someone you love, and even harder to hold them accountable to unwise, and sometimes un-Godly decisions. It’s so much easier to make a passive statement that doesn’t require you to stand for anything, but instead offer support…which leads us to statements like “just follow your heart.” Now we are off the hook, because we didn’t tell them what to do, we left it up to them. Often times the easier thing to do is not the wisest thing to do. Unfortunately few people these days seem to be willing to step into the tension of someone following their heart vs. following Jesus.
“For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4:3 (NLT)
If you are serious about following Jesus with your life let me make this plea to you. Stop following your heart, and please stop giving that advice to others. Instead give Jesus your heart and spend the rest of your life following Him. Our “heart” is often a code word for our emotions. And although our emotions can be great teachers, we cannot allow them to dictate our lives. As followers of Jesus it is incredibly irresponsible to make decisions solely based on feelings. I know we have all done it, but we must fight this temptation moving forward. The Bible has a couple strong things to say about our hearts, both are warnings, but with different focuses.
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)
“Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
Our heart can be incredibly deceiving, but it is also incredibly valuable and shapes the course of our lives. This is why one of the wisest things we can do is let Jesus own our hearts, and then spend the rest of our lives following Him.
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