The Heart is a Deceiver
My thoughts for today…
For much of my life, I’ve heard the expression “Follow your heart.” I’m guessing many of you have heard that same thing through the years. We have used that as a touchstone, a guiding light in the confusion of our lives. “What is your heart telling you?”, we ask when our friends are facing what may be a life-changing decision. “Listen to your heart – it always knows best.”
Famous people are often quoted on their insight into what the heart means to us, aside from its lifegiving job of getting blood around our body, that is.
Benjamin Franklin: “The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
William Shakespeare: “Go to your bosom; knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know…”
Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton: “A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.”
Blaise Pascal: “The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”
So, that’s what we do. When we are faced with decisions, we ask our heart. And, we listen to whatever we think it is telling us.
But, have we been led astray? The Bible tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Isaiah 17:9)
So, which is it? Are we to follow our heart or not?
Perhaps that is why we are told in Ezekiel that the Father says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26), because He, our Creator, knows the malignancy that can exist in our hearts.
The answer is clear. The Bible also tells us “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21), so it becomes imperative that, instead of trusting some internal organ, we trust in God and in His Word. Instead of looking inside for answers, we go to Him and seek His will.
In these times, and with the challenges we are soon to be facing (if we’re not already), it is crucial that we “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
So, instead of following your heart today, I would ask each of you instead to “…guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Susan Mouw
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Tony Francis is from the Middle East. He is grounded in the scriptures and has a licensed degree in biblical studies from MTI, the school of ministry, and a certificate in EPL (effective personal leadership) from LMI. He has authored many books and is the founder of Healed Nations Ministries (www.healednations.com). Tony mentors people in the prophetic and served as the prophetic leader of Patricia King's ministries. Tony is studying to be a mental health coach.
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