Trusting your heart is the biblical thing to do.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 2:08PM It's o.k. to trust your heart now. In fact, Jesus wants you to.
Your heart can be trusted now because it is no longer 'deceitfully wicked.' If you follow Christ, it would be wrong to mistrust your heart: It would be at cross-purposes with what God is doing in your life to constantly hold your desires under suspicion.
I recently asked a group of men to raise their hands if they thought that trusting their hearts was the right thing to do. About a third of the hands went up. The majority thought that holding their heart under suspicion was the biblical thing to do. As we unpacked the truth of their new hearts, given to them when they said 'yes' to Jesus, we exposed the debilitating assumptions they were taught about their hearts.
I explained that within the new heart Jesus gave them came new and noble desires -- and that dismissing those desires as selfish or inherently wicked would prevent them from doing certain things like:
- discovering their unique calling
- loving God and loving each other
But not all desires are created equal
There are, of course, competing desires that can be whispered to us, but those desires are not ours. They are either whispered by the Enemy, or our culture, or our 'flesh' (which is no longer us, not our real self); but those desires are not our desires. False desires are like thorns lodged in the skin -- they are embedded in our bodies, but not of our bodies. The thorns cry out for our attention, but our health lies in the vitality already present in our bodies. Our concern must focus on what's most alive and already present within us. That's where God focuses his energy.
Ask God to reveal the desires of your heart.
Stay with the process. It's what he's up to in your life. Trusting your heart is biblical.
Reader Comments (4)
Excellent!
Glad it was meaningful, Rocco.
Jim, this was a great post! It really spoke to me as I'm learning more about who I am and how God has uniqely created me. I think it's exciting to know that my heart is good and that it can be trusted. Learning to follow my heart is an adventure and I feel like I'm growing more and more in my ability to recognize the desires of my heart. Thanks for posting this, Jim.
Hi Aida, it is an exciting journey when we get more and more clarity about our calling. Glad you're on the journey.