Do Not Follow Your Heart

Follow your heart is often a statement people make when giving advice to someone to make decisions on things in their life. I want to tell you the opposite today, Do Not Follow Your Heart! Follow Jesus. The “follow your heart” belief isn’t found in the Bible. The Bible actually thinks our hearts have a disease: Jeremiah 17:9 tells us this: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jesus, the Great Physician, lists the grim symptoms of this disease in Matthew 15:19, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander”. This is not the direction that I want to take and that you should not either. Your heart is not a compass that tells you what direction you need to go, Jesus is that direction. He has made it very clear that when you follow something other than Him, it is the wrong way to go for your life and nothing lies more than our own hearts. If you also believe that making a decision based on your heart will save you, you are wrong again because we actually need saved from our hearts desires more than we think.

Our hearts were never created to be followed but they were designed to be led by believing in God’s will for our lives. Hebrews 7:25 clearly tells us this: “But if our hearts believe in God, as they are designed to, then God saves us.” See, don’t believe in your heart, but believe in the one who is in your heart. Direct your heart to always believe in God who can do anything if we ask. In John 14:1 Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to “Let not your hearts be troubled, just believe in your hearts.” He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” When you put all your trust and decision making on your heart’s desire, it ultimately makes the decision bad, but if you believe in the one that created you and died for you, the decision is always right.

We are the sheep and Jesus is our shepherd, when sheep make decisions on their own feelings, they get slaughtered by beasts but when they allow the shepherd to protect them and guide them to a safe place by his decisions for them, they remain alive and well full of purpose. Stop allowing your heart to be the shepherd, do not follow it because it has some qualities of a wolf still in it because of the sinful nature. Allow Jesus to be that shepherd in your life and follow His direction for you. “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” Is a verse very familiar to believers and non-believers for that matter and is found in the first sentence of Psalm 23. Why would you want to go against that in following your heart if you know that He is your shepherd? John 10:11 also says that He is the good shepherd and that he lays down his life for his sheep.

We all get caught up in telling others to follow their heart or go with their gut feeling, but in reality, as believers, we are giving the wrong advice to that person. We should be telling that person that seeks advice that seeking God in prayer is what is best and if they do not know him, we should be asking them if we can pray with them right then and there for that situation. In doing this we are doing what we are called to do and opening up an opportunity to witness and a way for God to move in their life. Have you missed those opportunities because you just tell the person to follow their heart and not take the time to share the gospel? I want to challenge you today to seize those opportunities and let that person know that leaning on God’s understanding and direction for their life is what is best for them. Take each opportunity today to show others who you follow not what you follow. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. In other words, follow his desires and direction for our lives and if it his will, great things will come out of it.

I will leave you with a couple ways to completely follow Jesus instead of your heart. The first is to deny yourself of interests of this world other than things that lift up Jesus while always seeking him. Next, show the example of God in the eyes of others. Again, this isn’t showing that you are perfect but it is showing that Love is first. Lastly, follow him always and pray without ceasing for those that are following other things before following Him. So again, follow Jesus not your heart and I promise you that it will be the best decision you have ever made in life.