The Problem With Deceit #1: "Follow Your Heart"

Being a deceitful person is probably well-known as an unattractive trait. Nobody really wants to be around someone who is not truthful or desires to manipulate your beliefs for their own personal gain. It just flat-out is not desirable in a companion. Yet, true liars are not easily recognized, and often-times become trusted in a society or people group.

Obviously, this topic could lead to a heated discussion on politics (and these sorts of discussions need to take place, especially amongst Christians), but instead I want to focus on something a little different. I want to talk about the deceit and the lies that have seeped into the modern church. Ones that are ripping apart truth and destroying God’s Design. Let me go through these one by one through multiple installments (marked with a number) and provide a counter to each of these counterfeits.

Lie #1 – “Follow Your Heart”

I do not know if I can even begin to count the number of Disney movies and secular ideals that involve this feel-good message. What does the Bible say about this?

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable – who can understand it?”

Okay, okay. That was a little too easy to counter. On a more in-depth note: Why does God say this?

God knows the heart is a wishy-washy place of feelings, experiences, and passions that have corrupted human living since the Fall in Genesis 3. While God did create each of these things and did so in a way that gave living a beautiful splendor, the central point for each of those is still corrupt and broken in every aspect because of sin. That is why Ephesians 3:16-19 says that Christ will live in our hearts so that He may redeem our hearts back to His Design. What we need to do in the meantime is learn to follow Him and reject the brokenness of our human hearts (which includes our wishy-washy feelings, experiences, and passions). His Design, His Life, and His Truth will always trump what is in our hearts.

This is why God gave us the Bible, so that we may learn about these three things and lean on them as He designed us to. So instead of living as we feel and finding what we believe among the broken pieces, let’s live as Christ designed and discover His Truth through His Word.

Scripture (God’s Truth) > Heart (Feelings, Experiences, Passions)

The Blunt (Brace yourself)

Truth does not care what you feel or have experienced. Truth found in Scripture is God’s design and God’s Word, whether your heart cotton-pickin’ likes it or not.

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Sources and Inspiration

"The Counter Punch: A Study in the Boxing Brilliance of the Most High God" by Eric Ludy at the Church at Ellerslie in Windsor, Colorado. Can be found at: The Rescue of a Nation Sermon Series (ellerslie.com)