follow your heart?

many times when people are in a decision-making time in their life you will hear people say, "follow your heart." most of the time i think that people are just trying to help. but, according to the word of God, our heart is not what should lead us in our crossroads of life. the greek word for heart in many places in the Bible comes from the word "kardia" which represents the part of you that is the center of your personality. it contains the mind, the will, and the emotions. it is the part of you that makes you unique, different from everyone else. we all have different strengths and weaknesses in our heart because everyone of us have a different thinking process and different emotional tendencies. we definitely have all lived different experiences, even those of us who were raised in the same home. all of these things make us who we are in our heart or in our soul.

Jeremiah 17:9 states, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severly, mortally sick! Who can know it?" i think that this is pretty good evidence that our heart is not intended to be the leader of our lives.

Proverbs 4:23 states, "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance." it seems to me that God is telling us here that we are to guide our heart not the other way around.

during those times of decision in our lives, there really should only be one leading voice, the Holy Spirit within us. Romans 8:14 states, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." so really people's advice to us should be "follow the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit always leads us to Jesus as our answer, Who really is our answer to our sickly heart as well.

our heart is not hopeless. our heart can be saved from its selfish ways. Ephesians 3:15-21 is a place in Scripture where paul is praying for the church to experience the fullness of our great salvation in every way. In verse 17, he prays that Jesus, through our faith might come and dwell in our hearts. the word "dwell" means to abide and make a permanent home and be Lord of. Jesus became Lord of my spirit by my faith in Jesus when i realized that i needed a saviour to deliver me from my helpless state of sin and the Holy Spirit came to live inside of me. He can be Lord of my heart, by my faith too, if i recognize my heart's need for a saviour as well. Every piece of my heart can be surrendered to Him and He will come and be Lord and Saviour of my heart and teach me to lead it by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

as we all come to know Truth, we will not be deceived by the lies of our unsurrendered heart or the world. Jesus, the Word of God should be our guide by the direction of the Holy Spirit within us. so, next time that i see someone at a crossroad in their life, "follow your heart" will not be my advice, but "follow the Holy Spirit in you!"