DON’T Follow Your Heart! | Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 143:8-10

Following your heart can be dangerous advice! This week, we’re starting a new series called “All Heart,” investigating what God’s Word says about the human heart. I’m excited to take a deep dive into this. Let’s jump in!

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Transcription:

Follow your heart. Listen to your heart. What does your heart say? How many times have you heard those words in a movie? How many times have you read them in a novel or maybe even somebody who loves you, who means well has sat across from you with your box of tissues and the tear streaming, and you’re asking for advice and they’re saying, what does your heart say? Has that happened to you? It turns out follow your heart is some seriously dangerous advice. Hi, welcome to the Bible for Busy People. It’s going to be all heart this week, I’m Erica, your host, and we are going to investigate what God’s word says about the human heart. Some of it may shock you. We’re going to start out by hanging out with the prophet Jeremiah join me in chapter 17 of his book, beginning in verse nine.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? 10 But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

So, right out the gate here, Jeremiah is telling us our hearts, your heart and mine, they’re desperately wicked. They are deceitful. We are capable of deceiving ourselves when you and I listen to our hearts. Let’s back up just a little bit in that same chapter, chapter 17 in Jeremiah, going back to verse five,

This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.

Okay, there’s the bad news, but you know with God, there’s always good news. Always if you look for it. But before we move on to that good news in verse seven, I just want to say that what you and I are learning is that our hearts are capable of turning away from the Lord. How do we keep that from happening? Let’s find out verse seven.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

So how do we keep our hearts leaning toward the Lord and not away? By trusting in him, by making the Lord our God, our hope and confidence. There’s something about that picture of a tree planted by water. When you and I are plugged in to Jesus, he is our living water. He is the one who is going to satisfy us. He is the bread of life. He is the one who is going to feed us. When you and I stay close to Jesus, our needs are provided for and we learn we can trust him. Turn with me now to Psalm 143 because we’ve got a better prescription than follow your heart. We’ve got something better beginning in verse eight now.

Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. 9 Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.

Here’s the prayer you and I can pray.

May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.

Another translation says, on level ground, there’s the thing to pray. There’s the thing to practice in your life. Say, “May your gracious spirit lead me. Lord, lead me forward on a firm footing.”

I remember last winter, our whole neighborhood was iced over. It was a scene that was so beautiful to see out the window, but if you actually put on boots and you were actually carrying a tray of Christmas cookies to your neighbors, well then it got dangerous, right? I mean, I was mince stepping, kind of like you minced garlic. Those were the tiny steps I was taking, and really I considered at one point maybe just sliding my way down the street. I didn’t want to drop those cookies, but it’s kind of scary because you could fall break your arm. You never know what’s going to happen.

When you follow your heart, you are walking on a path of ice. When you follow God’s spirit, you might still be walking on the ice, but you’re walking in yaks tracks. Let me explain. I actually work at a radio station and we have amazing engineers who sometimes have to be out in wintry weather investigating our equipment, checking out our towers. So, they attach these things called yaks tracks to the bottom of their boots, and they provide traction. Those little yaks tracks bite into the ice and our engineers can move forward safely. That’s what it’s like when you pray for God’s direction in your life. If you are following your heart today, I advised you, turning around. Remember in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy got close to meeting the wizard and she was in that forest before the flying monkeys came at all, and there was that sign I turned back if I were you, I recommend that to you today. If you have been following that advice, listening to what your heart is saying, talk to God right now and tell him, Lord, I don’t want to listen to my heart another second. I want to listen to what you have for me. And I am tuning in to hear what your spirit has for me today. God’s holy Spirit is alive in you.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for my friend who’s listening right now and for myself. Help us, Lord Jesus, to follow you, to listen to your voice. May your gracious spirit lead us forward on a firm footing. In your holy name Jesus. Amen.

Alright, until next time, you are really loved.

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