Please, Don’t Follow Your Heart

I think I have heard people encouraged to follow their heart more in the last few months than ever.

The message seems to come in many forms, some wrapped in Christian packaging.

At times the pursuit of our desires leads to something as harmless as a career change or a new hobby.

Other applications of it have ruined marriages and led to a slew of broken commitments and promises.

There are many Facebook quotes weaving this new-found “theology” with Christian lingo.

“Stop worrying about being good, be free.”
and
“Trust yourself to set your own moral compass.” they say.

These quotes are shared and liked hundreds and thousands of times…by Christians!

This should scare us.

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Following your heart sounds nice but has several false foundations it is built on

1. This view assumes our hearts are good and pure. This is not Biblical, but rather humanistic. People are broken. The planet is broken. We are in need of a Redeemer.

Following our hearts can lead us to do either immoral or at least very hurtful things.

Remember…

“The heart is wicked above all else” Jeremiah 17:9

2.This approach assumes that God’s commands are withholding something good from us rather than protecting us from hurting ourselves and others.

It’s like a teenager who thinks Mom and Dad want to keep them from fun only to realize the old folks knew what they were talking about.

When we pursue freedom over goodness, you and I presumes the standard set by goodness is flawed and our perception of right and wrong is impeccable.

Have you ever tried to bring healthy correction to someone who is “following their heart?” In our churches, the word sin is used less and less. Now we are the bad ones who judge others and their choices.

Everyone seems to be doing what is right in their own eyes.

3.Following your heart emphasizes MY desires and MY needs.

In marriage, parenthood, and the church; we are always called to consider others as better than ourselves. We are to submit ourselves and serve, like Christ served us.

Plain and simple we are experiencing an epidemic of narcissism.

By living life through this self-absorbed grid, promises and commitments are only valid until they are no longer convenient or we don’t FEEL we want to any longer.

As Christians, we are free. This is true.

True freedom not a freedom to follow every whim and fancy which comes our way. It is a freedom from having to live up to God’s standards in our own strength. This freedom allows to love, to obey, and to commit.

The basics of the gospel are this:
We are broken.
God set about to fix what we broke.

Now we can live life the way the Creator of the universe intended it to be lived. We OBEY because he first loved us and we TRUST He has our best interests in mind.

It’s not freedom to sin, but freedom to live as we were intended to.

And please, whatever you do; Do not follow your heart.

Follow God.

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