Follow HIS Heart

I think I’ve written about this before, but this morning as I read the first part of Psalm 119, I thought about our hearts.  No, not as a blood-pumping muscle, though I’m grateful for mine.  Our hearts, as in the seat of our emotions.  My Blue-Letter Bible says, in the ‘outline of biblical usage’ that the Hebrew word used here, “leb,” generally means, “inner man, mind, will, understanding.”

People in America often give the well-meaning but completely misguided advice to “follow your heart.”  In this culture, the heart has some kind of imagined superiority over the mind, or intellect.  We’ve romanticized the heart and it’s willy-nilly emotions as deserving greater precedence over the rational thoughts of the mind as it works through the evidence presented. If they ever really considered what “follow your heart” means at its core, they’d realize that, personified, it would look very much like a spoiled-rotten child having a full-blown temper tantrum in the middle of a store.  Following your heart means FORGET the evidence in front of you, FORGET your responsibility, FORGET your commitments, FORGET what is right and true and honorable—what do you WANT, sweetie?  “I’ll buy you that ice cream or toy or movie or game if you’ll just stop fussing, okay?”

Do we really think that is how mature life works?  Do we REALLY want to counsel people to ‘follow their hearts’?

If I followed my heart, many days, I’d stay home in bed instead of going to work.

If I followed my heart, I’d never EVER do laundry.  Or dishes.  Or mop.  (Well, I don’t do that last one as often as I should, but you get the picture.)

I SURE wouldn’t take out the garbage. Or sweep.  Or vacuum. Or pay bills!

If I followed my heart, I’d never do a lot of things that come with responsibility and things necessary for my life to go forward with some kind of order.  But if I followed my heart, it wouldn’t take long for my life to fall into complete chaos.

That is where following your heart leads, because your heart is often divided between what it WANTS, and what is RIGHT.

Genesis 6 records the state of mankind when they fully followed their own hearts.  “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (NKJV)  I could be wrong about this, but it doesn’t sound like a recipe for a blessed life.

Maybe this is why the Psalmist spoke more than once about following after God with their WHOLE heart.  It wasn’t about following the HEART.  It was about disciplining the HEART to follow after GOD.  That’s where the blessings live. 

Psalm 119:2  NKJV

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!

Remember “seek first the KINGDOM, and ALL THESE THINGS shall be ADDED unto you”?  Same principle.

Psalm 119:10 NKJV

With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

So if we follow this reasoning, when the whole heart seeks God, it ALSO desires to follow HIS commandments.  Not its own way.  And the next verse gives us the secret to training our whole heart to seek him:

Psalm 119:11 NKJV

Your WORD I have HIDDEN in my HEART,
That I might not sin against You.

It’s the WORD that teaches our HEART to FOLLOW HIM, not the fickle, self-serving mess inside our own hearts.  Like a small child, it must be TAUGHT to do right, not because it’s convenient or fun or exciting, but because it is what is RIGHT, and brings discipline and order and responsibility—and ultimately, blessing, and NOT destruction.

Hmmmm…I also find it interesting that that same section of Psalm 119 wraps up with the following expression:

Psalm 119:16 NKJV

I will DELIGHT myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

Look at the attitude displayed here: DELIGHT.  It’s not done begrudgingly.  There’s no sulking, no tantrum, no lower lip stuck forward like a floating wall shelf.  I will DELIGHT myself in your statutes.  In the biblical term of usage, statute is defined as “a law or decree made by a sovereign, or by God.” 

I will have a happy, joyful attitude about Your laws and decrees,

And I vow to REMEMBER them and apply them.

If we all trained our hearts likewise, the world would be a completely different place.

Don’t follow YOUR heart.  Follow His.