The Human Heart

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9

OUR CHILDREN HEAR it every time they turn around. It’s the well-meaning advice given in every sappy movie and on social media to someone seeking to make a decision —especially about matters of love: “You have to follow your heart.” It sounds so good. It suggests that our hearts will lead us to what is best if we just have the courage to listen and act on what they tell us to do.

But this mantra ignores the reality about our hearts that the Bible makes clear: They cannot be trusted. “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” In Matthew 15:19, Jesus tells us exactly what we will hear if we listen to and follow our hearts: “From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.” This means that we should listen to our hearts only to identify what they’re telling us about our desires. Then we will be able to examine those desires and take them to Jesus as either requests or confessions.

What we must understand, and what we must help our children understand, is that “our hearts were never meant to be followed, but to be led.” So rather than following our hearts, which lead us to do as we please, we must instruct our hearts to do what pleases God.

Lord, we pray that ________ would trust in the Lord with all of her heart and would not depend on her own understanding or her own desires. May ________ seek your will in all she does and then follow the path you direct her to take.