“Follow your heart,” they tell you. Go with your gut. Follow your feelings. Be true to yourself. How often have you received this common counsel? After all, even Sheryl Crow tells you, “if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.” So how could “follow your heart” be bad advice?
The problem with this guidance is the heart itself. Scripture tells us, “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26). But why? Because, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). The King James Version translates the word “sick” as “wicked.”
This should come as no surprise. Look around at society today and you see the result of people attending this allegedly anodyne adage.
Our culture is flooded with violence, division, depravity, disorder, envy, hatred, confusion, polarization, and so many other issues. All are a result of people following their hearts.
But aren’t people generally good? Isn’t evil the exception, not the rule? No. From the beginning, even with Cain, God warned, “sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7). This is a problem within us - sin lives in our flesh - as Paul laments:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
Romans 7:18-20
As well, Jesus told His disciples that the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
This is why so many readily speak that which, by normal standards, is considered abhorrent, cheering on what would normally be considered immoral. For, “the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matthew 15:18-19).
You see, we speak that which is in our heart, and as quoted at the outset, the unregenerate human heart is woefully wicked.
Wait? The what? What does that mean, “unregenerate human heart?”
Apart from God’s grace, man has a “heart of stone,” a heart that is hardened to the things of God; but God, in His mercy, as part of the regenerative process, replaces it with a “heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). As the Bible says, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
We cannot bring about this change by our own works or our own will - it must be wrought by God.
This makes the advice to “follow your heart” even more pernicious. For those who are not regenerate, following their heart is sure to lead to evil. For Christians, this advice goes against the admonition of Scripture.
We are never told to acquiesce to our own affinities. We are told instead to “walk by the Spirit” so that we “will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Why? Because, as Jesus said regarding the heart, “the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). So even for Christians, following one’s “heart” leads the wrong direction.
Walking by the Spirit results in fruit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). These are the characteristics our lives should evince.
At the very least, better advice for anyone should be to consider things from a practical, logical, and moral perspective. For Christians, it should be to consider God’s will and seek guidance from Scripture, the leading of the Holy Spirit (which is not the same as your emotions), and then reason, as God says, “come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).
Christian or not, “follow your heart” is a horrible recommendation.
This is a very interesting concept. Are the majority of humans "good" or "evil"? Naturally it's a wide range of "greys". I think a lot of incompetence is mistaken for evil.
Most times (all if I really think about it) my "heart's desire" does not lead to anything righteous. It is also said that "the heart wants what the heart wants." Again, that rarely, if ever, leads to something unholy. And when I DO succumb to what my heart wants I end up paying a heavy price spiritually.
I totally agree, our society has been pushed in the direction of obtaining what we want in our heart, and that tends to leave God out of the equation. I don't know exactly when the evil that currently prevails over people will be squashed. I just pray that it happens SOON. I'm prepared for Christ to make His comeback tour. Whenever that happens, I will do whatever He needs me to do.