Should we follow our heart?

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No!

I hope I answered the question of “Should we follow our heart?” concisely enough for you!

Let’s also go immediately to the reason why, as provided to us in the Bible:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9.

Now let’s take a moment to learn a little more about this topic, one that so many people entertain. Among non-Christians, it’s common to hear people say, “Just follow your heart …” but it’s also common to hear Christians say the same thing.

Writing in his book, “Fan the Flame,” Joseph Stowell looks deeper at this issue of the heart:

    Heart is used in scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as “the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,” “the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,” and “the center of a person. The place to which God turns.”

So again, let’s be reminded what the Bible tells us about our human hearts:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9.

Jesus spoke of the problem of the human heart this way:

“But the words you speak come from the heart — that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander,” Matthew 15:18-19.

In the midst of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, King David saw the ugliness of his own heart and cried out to God:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me,” Psalm 51:10.

It wasn’t just David who needed a clean heart, such is the need for every one of us, and it’s a need God wants to provide a remedy for:

“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations,” Ezekiel 36:26-27.

We need God to change our hearts in order to be able to have a relationship with Him:

“God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God,” Matthew 5:8.

Once God has purified our hearts, it is vital we guard our hearts to stay committed to the will of God:

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life,” Proverbs 4:23.

And once God has made our hearts new, we must not “follow” them but, instead, do this:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take,” Proverbs 3:5-6.

It is only by God creating a pure heart in us that we can accomplish His great command to us to love Him foremost, and then to love everyone:

“The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith,” 1 Timothy 1:5.

A change of heart is critical for all of us, for it will not end well with those who insist on following their hearts:

“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” Romans 2:5 (NASB).

So, have you, like David, cried out to God to create in YOU a clean heart?

Scotty