Listen to Your Heart

Answer this question before you read on…is “listen to your heart” good advice? Or, is it bad advice? I know we have all heard this at some point in our lives. Now that my little chick is 5, I am finding myself watching “Big Time Rush” on Nickelodean. In their theme song, they say, “hey, hey, listen to your heart now.” Therefore, my child has this lyric memorized and will just sing it out of the blue now.

The Bible has a lot to say about the heart. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says “the heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure.” Before God decided to flood the Earth, Genesis 6:5 says “that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” In Matthew 15:8 Jesus says “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” The Bible doesn’t have much good at all to say about our hearts. Yet, people tell people all the time to “follow their hearts.”

Here is what is interesting: The majority of satanists do not really worship satan…most of them will flat out tell you they don’t really believe in an actual satan. satanism at it’s core is humanism. Humanism is simply a way of thinking that regards us humans as REALLY important. Therefore, whatever humans “feel” like doing…that is what they should do. In fact, satanism has this one “verse” that is like the John 3:16 of Christianity. It goes like this: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” Basically, it says “do what you want to do,” “if it feels good and right…do it!” In other words…”listen to your heart.”

Looking back, especially in my teenage years, it is crazy how I wouldn’t listen to the people who really cared about me. I would date a girl who my friends told me was wrong for me, my parents would tell me was wrong for me, but hey, it was MY life and I would do what I wanted to do and date who I wanted to date. My heart screamed this was right…everyone who really cared about me said this was wrong. One big fat broken heart later, I learned the hard way that I should have listened to them. I should have listened to the people who cared about me.

Of all the stories I hear, there is one among my closest Christian friends that is all too common. So many men I know that have been truly transformed by Jesus Christ tell me the same thing; “If I could go back and just do ONE THING different in my life, I would not have had a sexual relationship until I got married.” Personally, I couldn’t forget it even if I tried. I still remember the war between my heart and God’s Word. Unfortunately, I listened to Big Time Rush…I “listened to my heart.” In one single moment, I gave away my purity and would NEVER be able to give that to my wife. Yes, I got forgiven for it, but my chance to be pure on my wedding day…was gone!

Listening to your heart is the easiest, wimpiest, and stupidest way to live. If your heart is deceitful, and satan is the master of deceit, who are you following when you follow your heart?

Follow God! Read His Word and follow His rules. Nine out of ten times, His Word will not match up with your feelings. Nine out of ten times, it will be hard to follow His rules. It will not be popular with your friends…if you don’t believe me teenager…go tell all your friends you are thinking of keeping yourself a virgin until you get married. Go tell them that you have decided that drugs will NEVER enter your body. Go tell them that you aren’t going to cuss anymore because the Bible says our speech should be pure. All of these things are decisions of the heart, and decisions that will make you “un-cool” to people who follow their own hearts and desires.

Every single one of us must choose who we are going to follow. Either you follow your heart…or you follow God! There is a place in Christianity where your mind and heart get renewed. Your heart becomes His heart. You are only going to get to that place by discipline and devotion…two things that our hearts are not interested in.

Later

Adam