SHOULD A BELIEVER FOLLOW HIS HEART WITH REGARD TO GOD ?
Books and movies have admonished us to follow our hearts and all our wishes will come true. Is this good advice for a true believer? Well, what should our hearts and desires set as the ideal goal? Obviously wealth does not bring happiness. One should seek our hearts desire regarding vocations and business goals etc. if they are reasonable. But getting close to God should be our hearts number one goal.
John 2:24-25, “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” (NKJV)
However the hearts of men are not naturally directed toward God but are selfish and carnal. Christ knew it. Yet it is clear that directing our hearts and goals toward serving our Creator is best even though our unconverted nature does not wish to follow.
Isaiah 55:2-3, “ Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you…”
Romans 7:22-24, “For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
We should NOT follow our hearts because our basic nature is sinful. God has us learning to overcome human nature and its related obstacles with His help in this life.
THE FIRST STEP TOWARD REPENTANCE IS RECOGNIZING OUR HEART PROBLEM
Each believer needs to recognize what kind of negative traits are present within him. All are sinners, period! It is normal to think that we are basically good, self-deception is part of the human nature package.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Note that all these things come from within the person. Our hearts cannot be trusted in many areas of life. Many non-Christians take delight in pointing out the hypocrisy they see in nominal Christians. God knows our hearts and our need to change and repent.
Psalms 44:21, “Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.”
However non-believers are unaware of the depth and danger within them of human nature and therefore are even more vulnerable to sinful damage to themselves their families and society. Obviously we should all try to set good examples for others.
Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
Recognize that even religious people have the same nature as others and our attempts at righteousness –– apart from God –– Do not impress Him. Everyone has a deceitful heart, everyone needs to be forgiven. All mankind needs grace and to be cleansed and given a “new heart.” New covenant believers are just the first wave of those to whom God is giving a new heart.
We have an additional problem: God's adversary, Satan, is seducing all he can to be even more self-destructive. Our society encourages in a clever manner decadent actions.
Ephesians 6:11-12, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Mankind needs help to win this part of the spiritual war.
THE GOOD NEWS IS GOD WILL CHANGE THE HEARTS OF MEN
Our hearts are polluted by this world and our selfish nature. We can now openly ask for help realizing our deep needs. Jesus came to save mankind and give us the spiritual help we need.
1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
First we need to acknowledge our need for help and our guilt. Be bluntly honest with God and ourselves.
Hebrews 7:25, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Hebrews 8:10-13, “For this is the covenant that I will make… I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;… None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness…"
Hebrews 10:12-16, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified… This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
The work of Christ, the Messiah for all, will put in our hearts the goodness of God and in the future we will have a heart that we can FOLLOW AND TRUST.
Colossians 1:27, “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Today, true believers should strive for deeper repentance and doing our part to get Christ in us –– the only hope for everlasting glory.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”
Trust Jesus. He will, through the power of God's Holy Spirit, change our hearts and prepare us to be the future Sons of God.
Romans 8:16-18, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
God has a plan to share His Godly heart with future Sons of God. We will be able to do what Moses could not do and that is to look directly at God because we will be like Him. Wow! Thank Jesus and God for leading us to our new wonderful, heart.
