“Follow Your Heart” is a Lie

We live in a society that runs on emotion. Everyone is encouraged to do what feels best for them – no matter if it actually is or not. People base their decisions more on how it makes them feel rather than if it’s the true or right thing.

I’m not knocking emotions. I think they’re so important to the way in which we interact with those around us and build relationships. They aid us in figuring out certain situations and give us the ability to express ourselves. But, when they become the key factor in our decision-making process that’s when the problems begin to arise.

This morning as I sat in the morning service at The Crossing church, the pastor brought up that when we struggle in situations, people say one particular phrase almost every single time – follow your heart. “Follow your heart, it won’t lead you wrong,” “Just do what your heart tells you to do,” or, “Listen to your heart.” While these phrases are said with good intent or an attempt to get you to drown out the world’s many voices, it’s ultimately advice that leads down a path of destruction.

Mark 7:20-23 states, “Then He (Jesus) said, ‘What comes out of a person – that defiles him. For from within, out people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.'” (emphasis mine, HCSB)

Jesus explicitly states that the heart is evil!! The heart is corrupt and all that flows from it is as such as well. Our hearts are NOT pure and they do not lead us in paths of righteousness. People don’t have “good hearts.” They have deceitful and sinful hearts.

I’m guilty of buying into this same way of thinking. “If I follow what my heart is telling me, if what I feel to be right, then I’ll make the right choice. If I listen to what it all is telling me, I’ll end up where I’m supposed to be.” I am wrong every time!!

Do you know where I’d be if I had followed my heart? I’d be dead. Because at one time, my heart told me that life was over and there was no point in living. My heart told me that good looks and parties and boys and alcohol would all fix the issue. But then when they didn’t, it told me that life wasn’t worth living anymore. The heart is vile and a liar.

We should be pointing people to the truth that God gives us. We should be looking at the inerrant Word of God to give us direction. We should be begging and praying to God for a clean and pure heart because it’s only Him who can give it to us. We have to stop believing the lie that we are inherently good, when in fact we are inherently evil and sinful. That isn’t a pessimistic view of humanity, it’s the blatant truth given in scripture.

Don’t believe the lies that you’re being fed by the world around you.

Following your heart leads down a road of destruction.

Following Jesus leads down a road of life.