I’ve had this “follow your heart” picture by my coffee maker since we moved into our house over seven years ago.
Every single day almost, it has toppled onto the floor. You can’t tell, but the backside of it is cracked.
I’ve decided it’s a lie that God wanted me to see was broken.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Jesus, the Great Physician, lists the symptoms of this disease: “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19).
We can’t trust our fickle hearts.
They’re simply not reliable enough to lead us.
So, where should we get our direction? Proverbs 3:5-7 tells us:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and HE will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”
I put a new sign by my coffee maker this week, and it’s a much better guide.
No more following our hearts around here, which are passionate one moment and needing to be pulled out of the pits the next.
No, God he’s consistently worthy of following.
With HIM in the lead, all things are possible.
Forgiving, when we want to hold grudges.
Trying something new, when we’d rather stay in our comfortable bubbles.
Doing what He says to do-
when our hearts are on board,
and finding the joy that FOLLOWS obedience, when our hearts DIDN’T feel like it but we listened anyway…
ALL things are possible-
the hard, more bearable
and the wonderful, even more pleasant
with God,
who shares his heart and his strength with us.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”- Matthew 19:23-26 NIV
We don’t need to set our hearts upon
better dreams to follow,
we simply need to admit that our hearts,
in themselves, are unreliable and sinful-
and we need Someone who is
ALWAYS reliable, to lead us,
and to save us-
sometimes, often
even from ourselves.
From Full 