A couple of times, I have heard and seen people talk to one another to follow their hearts, perhaps on domestic issues or on other issues that have far reaching effects on their lives. Trepidation grips me each time I think of following my heart on any issue. Not only because the bible kicks against such tendencies in us as people of God, but more because I have seen what it means to follow one’s heart – it more often than not leads to utmost peril.
The bible says; “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord search the heart, and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve” Jer. 17: 9-10 (NIV). God knows the nature of our hearts. The Lord understands the fickle atmosphere hovering over the heart of the individual and that’s the reason the scripture, in the passage above opens our eyes to the danger of impulsively believing the popular notion of “since it feels good to me and my psyche, then it is ultimately good”. What a lie and a fatal mistake!
The Holy Spirit of God demands from us, an absolute dependence on God and on his son Jesus Christ through His working in us as children of God. In today’s world, there is so much pressure and tendency to trivialize certain issues of our lives thinking they do not concern God. We are apt to think and act believeing that our common senses can fix certain things, forgetting the scripture that says; ”There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” Prov. 14:12 (NKJV). We prefer on many occasions to go ahead, following our hearts without a patient recourse to prayer and the word of God for guidance. It seems rational to the thinking of our “almighty” brains to do so. Isn’t it? No wonder we come back battered each time and start to accuse the Spirit of God.
The bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. So, can we follow this kind of a heart? You have got to be patient for the answer. First, we must acknowledge the state our hearts as described in the book of Jeremiah 17:9. No matter how beautiful & noble or otherwise the intention of our hearts may be, we must also acknowledge the frailty and deceit that could emanate therefrom because the scripture cannot be broken. Therefore it is our prerogative each time to submit our hearts and its content to the Holy Spirit for scrutiny and ultimate guidance before we take any step in life. At this point, God will begin to work in our reasoning and thinking processes, for the scripture says; “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” Philippians 2: 13 (NKJV). God’s workings in us, as the scripture describes it, will make us to see, discern and think in the right perspectives. We would be surprised at how the folly behind our initial impulsive rationalization will be exposed to us and expunged by the workings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. At this point, we can follow our hearts! But then, it is no longer our mere human hearts that we are following, it is the heart of God!
God bless us all.
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