Amanda Sylvester
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Someone has told you at some point to follow your heart. Almost guaranteed. And they may have been someone that wanted what was best for you and to see you grow. But here’s the thing: that is the exact opposite of what we should do. It is a lie that we have been told over and over again and begun to believe.
But here’s what Scripture says about the heart:
“This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD… The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:5,9 NIV)
Now not everything that the Bible says about the heart is negative, there’s a lot about the heart that is actually positive, but those instances describe a heart which belongs to God, the Bible calls that a pure heart.
Whether you’re following God or not, don’t follow your heart. If you are following God, you can look at it as following your heart but by doing so actually following His. In this case, you’re still not following your own heart. If you’re not following Jesus, your heart is going to lead you down destructive paths.
First of all:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV).
Every action that you take will be a direct result of where your heart is at. But that doesn’t mean that you are to follow what your heart wants at all times.
I am a pretty independent person and have been since I was little. So my plan for college was never to stay home and study online. I never thought that was going to happen. But God had other plans. A little over a year ago when I was figuring out what I was doing for school, I had to be willing to accept that His plans are better than what I had envisioned for myself. But now that some things have changed, I’m feeling Him leading me to go to campus. 🙂
We have to be willing to wait for God’s timing, rather than doing them whenever we want. Do I feel in some ways that I missed out because I wasn’t at school for my freshman and sophomore years of college? Yeah. Do I realize that I wouldn’t be almost done with my sophomore year of college had I been on campus? Absolutely. There are so many ways that God has shown me through the past few years that He is faithful and will never leave me (Deuteronomy 31:6) that it is indescribable.
Also, don’t forget that besides waiting sometimes the answer is just going to be no. Sometimes you’ll wait and wait and wait thinking that His answer will turn into a yes, but the answer has been no all along and will remain no.
“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NIV).
When we place our focus first on God and not on the things of this world, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts. Look at the context of this verse. This passage of Scripture is all about trusting God with our lives, working for Him, and not becoming envious of what others have, among other things.
Here’s the thing: the Christian life isn’t about following random desires of the heart. That will only lead to disaster when those desires come from a place of impurity remaining in our hearts. The Christian life is about following God’s will in all things, no matter what our own hearts’ desire.
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