"Follow your heart." I'm sure we have all been given that cliche piece of advice once or twice in our lives. For a while that's what I lived by. The thought is to look down inside, to my inner being, and let it decide if what I do is right or wrong. I thought I had good intentions. I thought I was capable of making good choices. I thought me following my heart due to those two qualities meant I was alright. Wrong. The Bible clearly states:
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." Jeremiah 17:9-10
You see, man is incapable of following their heart and pleasing God at the same time. You cannot do both. Ever since the beginning, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the fall of man made it impossible for us to go without sinning. We all fall short of the glory of God. Nothing we do can fix that.
So, now, you're probably thinking, "Great, I'm already set up for failure so why try?" The pastor at my church last Sunday made an interesting statement. "Don't follow your heart. Lead it." And by lead it he meant bring it to God. I think that's really all God asks of us is to bring Him our hearts. What He does with it will definitely amaze you.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
When we bring our hearts to our Father, He makes them clean. New. White as snow. He changes us for the better. Psalm 37:4 tells us that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart, but in the action of delighting ourselves in the Lord, or bringing our hearts to Him, they are changed, meaning our desires are changed as well. They are changed to desires that are pleasing to the One that most desperately wants to reside in our hearts.
So, friends, my advice to you is not to follow your heart, but lead it. Lead it to the One who created it. Let Him help you accomplish the soul purpose that it was made for.
