You Can Only Trust Your Heart Sometimes. Jeremiah 17:9.

Posted bySteven WalesPosted inFollow Your Heart/Heart is Desperately Wicked, wise counselTags:, , , ,

Novelists wrestle with a constant struggle: how do you balance action with heart? Books and movies often open with car chases and gunfights, but it takes only a minute or two before audiences ask ‘Who am I supposed to root for? Why do I care about them? Who ARE these people?’ Action without heart feels pointless.  On the other hand, if a story opens with narration, or maybe someone drinking tea and writing in a journal, readers may lose interest—and no storyteller wants that. Good stories need both action and heart.

We talk more and more about the heart today. We make decisions differently. Few simply follow their father into a farming career. We have vocational schools, technical schools, and colleges.  We have aptitude tests and career counseling.  Where there were only three options for women of your grandmother’s generation (teacher, nurse, or secretary), today the number of choices available to both men and women seems nearly endless. So what is the best advice our culture offers a talented young person facing infinite possibilities?

FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

Everyone says it, right?  And it’s not bad advice.  Look inside yourself and ask questions: What do I enjoy? What do I dream of? What makes me feel alive? What have I loved for years and will I continue to love it for decades? Those are useful considerations. But sometimes God will surprise you in ways your heart could not have foreseen.

Christians should aim for something deeper than the heart. Don’t simply follow your heart.

FOLLOW YOUR LORD.

“The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it or understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9. 

I can tell you from years of experience that your heart can be dead wrong, and following your heart can lead to disaster. (Yes, God gives believers new hearts according to Ezekiel 36:26. But we still struggle with the flesh; we remain vulnerable to deception from our own desires and from the enemy of our souls—whose voice will ALWAYS sound exactly like your heart.)

There is a balance to things: you must not ignore your heart.  But there are greater considerations. 

When making a major decision, I would ask questions in this order:

1)What does scripture say?

2)What is the Holy Spirit saying to me?

3)What are wise Christians around me saying?

4)What does my heart say?

ΑΩ

Published by Steven Wales

Dad's Daily Devotional began as text messages to my family. I wanted my teenagers to know their father was reading the Bible. But they were at school by then. Initially, I sent them a favorite verse or an insight based on what I read each day. That grew into drafting a devotional readng which I would send them via text. I work as an attorney and an adjunct professor, and recently wrote a book called HOW TO MAKE A'S.

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