The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
There’s an age old philosophy that has provided countless story lines in movies, books and songs that beckons you to follow your heart, but the truth is, you’re not supposed to follow your heart, you’re supposed to follow your God. Now if your heart is fully committed to God and delights in nothing more than pleasing Him, it will tell you to walk in obedience to His Word. If your heart is telling you anything else, it’s not trust worthy and is leading you in the wrong direction!
God tells us through Jeremiah that our hearts are deceitful, in fact, more deceitful than anything else! How can your heart deceive you? It can make you believe that wrong is right and right is wrong. It can convince you that what you desire is good for you and should be pursued regardless of the cost. Let’s examine for a few minutes the areas your heart is most likely to lead you astray.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts–murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15:19 NIV
Can you imagine getting to the place where you would commit murder to obtain something your heart desires? That may sound extreme but demonstrates just how much your heart can deceive you and just how far off track it can lead you! The Bible goes so far as to say that if we hate someone we are guilty of murder. What lie leads us to hatred? The one that makes us believe someone else is to blame for our unhappiness. When you are right with God, no one can steal your joy! If you are unhappy, start by examining your relationship with God. He is your source of joy, no one else! If you are looking to someone else to make you happy, you will be disappointed every time!
Matthew also tells us that out of the heart comes adultery and sexual immorality. These are probably the most obvious areas our hearts deceive us. Sexual purity and commitment to the marriage relationship is not a gray area in God’s Word. God makes it very clear how He feels about it; one man, one women, within the context of marriage, committed to each other for life! There are few topics, if any, that God makes simpler to understand. Our hearts can lead us to believe we will be happier with someone else or that we’re justified because our spouse isn’t meeting our expectations. There is no justification for breaking God’s commands. This is one of those areas where your heart makes you feel so strongly that you are doing the right thing, then once the damage is done, and there’s no turning back, you realize you’ve been deceived and struggle with regret. Unfortunately, when our heart leads us down this road, we bring a tremendous amount of pain to others, especially children, pain that we can’t undo even after regret sets in.
Most of us aren’t going to run out and rob a bank today, but when we are prone to follow our heart rather than God’s standards, we will often justify stealing in other ways; dishonest accounting, taking liberty with the numbers on tax returns, exaggerating business expenses. False testimony and slander are two things that the Bible tells us God hates. Our hearts deceive us and lead us to believe we are justified in attacking someone’s character on the premise that exposing them is our responsibility so as to protect others. Sadly, no where do I see this happening more than within the Christian community. There is nothing Christ like about such behavior! The truth is, slander and malice for any reason is sin. There is no justification for such. Those who speak out against others with malicious intent, are never pleasing to God!
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered. Proverbs 28:26 NASB
Who will you trust today, your heart or your God?