THE PROBLEM IN OUR HEARTS

“Follow your heart.” You’ve surely heard this advice before. Maybe you’ve even said it. When you realize that something is wrong with you and that life is utterly broken, the mantra of our culture is to let your heart be your guide. This conventional wisdom permeates nearly every TV show, movie, and song.

It sounds great. It almost sounds spiritual. Well-meaning Christians occasionally offer this advice. We all tend to believe it. But there’s a problem.

Your heart.

Record Jeremiah 17:9, personalizing the verse by replacing the first word, The, with My.

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The problem with following your heart is that your heart is the problem. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew the truth. They knew the fruit of every other tree was beautiful, delicious, and free to enjoy. The problem wasn’t ignorance. It was selfishness. They had no reason to doubt God’s command, yet they were tempted to doubt His character. They wondered whether God was keeping something desirable from them. They wanted what would literally kill them. When the serpent’s lie twisted the desires of the first man and woman and they took bites of the God-forbidden fruit, nightmarish shame rushed through their veins and washed over their naked bodies.

Sin has infected the heart of every child born of a man and a woman since that day. Every person is now born with a sinful nature. The entire human race—every tribe, tongue, and nation—has inherited this shared family trait. But before you play the victim card, claiming it’s not your fault that you were born with a broken heart bent dangerously inward with pride, look at what God’s Word has to say about everyone’s nature and everyone’s choices.

Record Proverbs 14:12.

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Read James 1:13-17. Adam blamed Eve or God for his sin. Eve blamed the serpent. What did James say about God’s relation to sin (see v. 13)? What did he say about God’s character and interaction with us (see v. 17)?

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Record James 1:14, personalizing the verse by replacing generic phrases like “each person is,” “he is,” and “his” with “I am” and “my.”

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Read James 1:15. In the beginning God blessed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. How did James describe the reproductive process of evil?

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Following your heart leads away from God because the problem begins in your heart. You want what will kill you. You don’t trust that God—your Creator—wants what’s best for you. Your own desire overwhelms your knowledge of Him, and you choose to sin, believing the lie that it will be worth it. But it never is. Desire becomes sin, and sin becomes death, just as God warned in the garden. The pattern continues without exception.

Everybody has the same problem. Everybody has the same choice. It’s your turn right now. Will you make excuses and pass the blame? Will you continue to let your heart be tempted by things you know aren’t good for you?

The fact is that you’re sinful by nature and by choice. But it’s also a fact that God is gracious and good. Unlike the fickle desires of your heart, He never changes. Your best efforts to fix your own problems and the problems in the world by following your heart are as ineffective as Adam and Eve’s attempt to hide from the Creator behind trees and fig leaves that He created. He spoke the universe into existence. Did they really think He didn’t know where they were or what they had done? Do you really believe following the desires of your own heart will turn out any better than it did for Adam and Eve?

Conclude your study with honesty before God. Silence may be appropriate for a while as the Father of lights begins to reveal dark spots in your heart. Allow yourself to feel the foolishness of trusting your own desires rather than the wisdom of your Creator, the giver of “every good and perfect gift” (Jas. 1:17).