(Don't) Follow Your Heart!

It’s everywhere! “Follow your heart,” “Listen to your heart,” “Go where your heart leads.” The heart balloons and feelgood quotes will be coming soon enough with Valentine’s Day approaching! Today’s society encourages a very self-centered outlook, and whatever YOU believe is what you should do. Should a Christian be falling for this though?

Did you know that the Bible actually tells us NOT to follow our hearts? No, really! Look it up! In Numbers 15:39-40, God explicitly commands the Israelites NOT to follow their heart!

“39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” (KJV)

Jeremiah even says that the heart is deceitful above all things in Jeremiah 17:9.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (KJV)

The heart can be a tricky thing… and emotions can be a tricky thing… so we need to be vigilant in guarding our hearts against the devil. When facing an adversary, we should turn to the Lord and His commands rather than “listening to our heart.” What we have in our heart is what should flow out of it, so do we want our own selfish wants, or do we want the Lord Jesus Christ to flow from us?

Who are you following? Are you following your own desires and making emotional decisions or are you following God’s Word and keeping it close to your heart to guard it?

Proverbs 4:23 (KJV)

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.