The Folly of “Following Your Heart” - Chase Green
“It’s my life and I’ll do what I want!” Perhaps the tune reverberates through your mind as you recall the 1965 song recorded by the Animals, or several newer renditions covered by various bands. Or maybe you’re more familiar with the much newer “The Heart Wants What it Wants” by Selena Gomez? But do these hit singles really reflect the truth?
“Follow your heart.” “Let your conscience be your guide.” These overused Disneyesque clichés have become mainstay philosophy for much of the masses. But are these thoughts Biblical?
Let me start by saying that only if one guides his heart with the Bible do the statements “follow your heart” and “let your conscience be your guide” become acceptable. Again, that’s a tremendous qualifier to the statement – one must only follow his heart (or conscience) if his heart and conscience are properly trained by the Word of God. Ezra 7:10 says that Ezra “prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel” (emphasis mine throughout). First Timothy 1:5, 1:19, and 3:9 emphasize the importance of a “pure heart,” a “good conscience,” and “sincere faith.” First Timothy 4:2 says that the conscience can be “seared with a hot iron,” Titus 1:15 indicates that the conscience can be “defiled,” and Hebrews 9:14 tells us that the blood of Christ purges our consciences from dead works toward serving the living God.
To use the expression, none of this comes “through osmosis.” One must dedicate himself to diligent study of God’s Word in order to discover God’s eternal truths that, when applied, will make one accepted in God’s sight.
The fact of the matter is that most individual’s hearts, if followed, will lead them down the path of destruction. The Bible says in Prov. 4:23 that we are to keep our hearts with all diligence, because out of our hearts spring the issues of life. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 10:23 says, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”
Even a cursory reading of the book of Jeremiah surely impresses upon the reader that the human heart, left to its own devices, only brings sin and sorrow. Proverbs 29:15 similarly shows that “a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” Children must be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4) if they are to have hearts molded by Scripture.
While it is true that young people have free will, thus, the ability to choose their own path, it is also true that rearing children with knowledge of God’s will for their lives greatly increases the likelihood of spiritual success (Deut. 6:1-9; Prov. 22:6). The bottom line, though, is this – we must ensure that young people understand that “following your heart,” generally-speaking and without molding one’s heart by the Word of God, only leads to disaster because the human heart left to its own devices is desperately wicked. Who can know it?