37 | Heart 🖤

You've heard it in songs, on podcasts, seen it memed a thousand times. Maybe you've even whispered it to yourself after sending that risky text.

This phrase became famous when Woody Allen used it to justify leaving his decades-long partner & girlfriend, Mia Farrow, for Soon-Yi, the daughter Mia had adopted. He apparently didn't read Pascal, who centuries earlier warned: "The heart has reasons that reason knows nothing of."

We may never do a Woody Allen. But we use the exact same logic to justify bad relationships. We've just learned to sprinkle a Bible verse or two on top and make it sound spiritual.

What Pascal meant as a warning, Woody used as an excuse. And we… turned it into a mantra.

The world says “follow your heart.” The Bible never says that. Not even once.

The verses that come to mind are Jeremiah 17:9, where it says the heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And in Matthew 15:19, our Lord says it plainly: out of the heart come "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."

But somehow those warnings roll off like water on a duck's back. We hear them, nod along, and keep following our achy-breaky, evilhearts anyway.

The Bible doesn't treat the heart like a trustworthy compass.

Crack open scripture and you'll find example after example of what happens when we make our feelings the highest authority in our lives. Two of the most gifted men in the Old Testament walked this exact road. Both ended in a hot mess.

We all know what happened to David, a man after God's own heart, who for one weak moment followed his heart, went after Bathsheba, and scripted his own fall. And Samson, the strongest man in Israel, set apart by God from birth, threw it all away for Delilah's sake.

Yet that's exactly how many of us make decisions. "It just feels right." "God wants me to be happy." Sure, sometimes He does want us to be happy. But He wants us to be holy first.

That’s why Solomon writes:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Let's break that down: The object of your trust isn't your heart. It's the LORD. The command is “trust the Lord”, not "trust your heart."

Want the relationship? Suddenly every red flag becomes a "season of growth." Want the job? Every closed door becomes something to kick down.

The heart is remarkably gifted at making a case for whatever it already wants. It's an excellent lawyer. It argues, cross-examines, produces evidence, and can defend almost anything if the desire is strong enough.

That's why James warned us in chapter 1, verses 14 and 15:

“…but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Notice what drags us away. Not culture, Not satan. Our own desires. Samson got dragged away by his own desire for Delilah.

Which explains why the Christian life requires something stronger than feelings. Feelings make wonderful passengers, but terrible, terrible drivers.

Following Christ often means talking to your heart like you would to a child: “I hear you. We’re just not going there.”

Over time, your desires become less about what your heart wants and more about what the Lord wants. Over time you stop praying, “Lord, please grant my heart’s desires,” and replace it with, “Let Your will be done.”

So don’t follow your heart. It’s a terrible compass, a reckless driver, and a lawyer from hell. It has talked you into nearly every sin you’ve ever regretted. It said “you deserve this” or “do what makes you happy.” But all it did was chain you and call it freedom.

If I were you, I’d move to the passenger seat, hand the wheel to Christ, and let Him drive. Because He’s my Good Shepherd, and I’m His sheep.