"Follow Your Heart"

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to Tuesday Talks With Titus! Everyone around us seems to say, "Follow your heart". Now, don't think I don't enjoy some of the older Disney movies, but most of them share one lie, "Follow your heart, and it will lead you the right way." But let's look at why we can't trust our hearts. Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."

This verse tells us what we should do with our hearts. Our hearts should be trusting in Him! A lot of you know this is one of my favorite verses, but I never really thought about it in this way. This verse also says "Lean not on your own understanding". We, as human beings, gain more and more understanding as we get older. The issue is, we get educated on things that aren't true and if you want to hear more about that, I did talk about that in my most recent podcast "Brainwashed".

Listen, if we listened to our "understanding" we would surely end up lost. Why? Because, according to our understanding, we need need to follow our heart or follow reason. Remember, Jesus is the one who’s supposed to be directing your path and I hope that’s what you’re going to get out of this podcast. Acknowledge what He’s telling you. The words that I am reading to you from scripture are the words of God! Now, at this point, you may not see any biblical advice about not following our hearts, but let's take a look at Jeremiah 17:9

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (NIV)

What?! Yeah, the Bible says our heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure! Now, I know some friends who have told me things along the lines of "I only thought it." or "I didn't act on it." etc, but in this very verse, it says that God searches the heart and examines the mind! So, if you're thinking that no one sees what's going on in your mind and you can do whatever you want in your mind then I've got bad news... God does! I think y'all might be confused about why I keep talking about the mind when this episode is about the heart, well it's because what's going on in the mind often goes to the heart, and what's going on in the heart will show with our actions.

"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you." Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)

Have you ever heard the term “you are what you eat”? Well, this Bible verse says you are what you think in your heart, and that means a lot. So, let’s break it down.
We need to keep our hearts pure and guarded, this may mean cutting out a TV show, movie, app, game, book, and anything else that’s having a negative impact on your heart. But that’s only the guarded part, what about having to stay pure because us being pure really affects our thoughts? In this verse, we see obvious reasons to change what we think about on a regular basis. I really hope we as Christians are constantly checking to make sure that we are thinking as Christ does. Our goal should be to have a heart that is honorable. Just remember, God sees your heart, so keep looking for ways to make your heart something that God would be pleased to see. So let’s look at a verse telling us what to think about to help us have an approachable heart to God. Philippians 4:8 tells us:

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there’s any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.”

See, this is telling us how to keep our hearts pure, but the point I’m trying to get across is we can’t trust our hearts because they are human, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to keep them pure. This verse tells us how to do that and what to think about so we can keep it pure. The final takeaway from this that I hope you get from this verse, is if there’s anything that is praiseworthy meditate on it. Normally, when people think of meditation they often think of yoga, but that’s not the kind of meditation we’re talking about, this is the type of meditation where you take time to think about a verse and really apply it to your life. Remember to think about that when you do your devotions. In other words, you are normally meditating on the devotion you’ve just done.

To wrap up, if you follow your heart, you will get majorly lost, but if you follow God, He will direct your path. To end, don’t do what your heart tells you to do, do what God tells you to do! Thank you so much for reading the blog version of Tuesday Talks With Titus! I hope you enjoyed this blog. If you did, please consider leaving a "like".
It helps me know how many people are tuning into my blog, and it also helps get my name out there. Also, please consider sharing this episode, and don’t forget to check out my podcast version of this blog, where I go into a little bit more depth. In the next Tuesday Talks With Titus, we will be talking about how to reinforce our faith instead of deconstructing it. You’ll hear more about that when the episode comes out. Thank you, so much, for reading, and I’ll see you next time!

This blog was written by Titus Kitchen.