I saw a mural the other day that said, “Follow Your Heart.” Pretty simple advice, right? But I got to wondering, what would that look like? What does that really mean?
I know, of course it isn’t talking about the muscle in my chest that pumps life-giving blood through my body. I’m sure not gonna take advise from it.
Does it mean that we are to follow our instincts? Is it a voice inside giving us direction? Or does it mean we should follow our passions and what we are really excited about? Or maybe it’s referring to our ability to discern the best course in any given moment.
I really don’t know what our society means when it says to follow your heart, so I decided to see what God has to say about the subject. And it turns out that it isn’t such good advice after all.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
And Psalm 26:2 says, “Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;”
So, if my heart is deceitful and untrustworthy, needs to be guarded and examined by God, maybe I shouldn’t follow it.
When the prophet Ezekiel was delivering the message of the Lord to the people of Israel that God would restore them as a mighty nation even though they had rebelled against Him and turned their backs on Him, here is what God told them He would do,
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
There it is. Did you see it? We shouldn’t follow our hearts but rather we should let God replace them. And in doing so, follow Him.
One more verse sums it up perfectly. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
