Tag: Follow your heart

Man in leather jacket and gloves sawing a tree branch outdoors

Knowing You Are NOT Wise

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8 CSB – Read the chapter)

Men are infamous for not wanting to ask for directions. Personally, I hate not knowing where I am, but I also don’t like getting directions from another person. But this is because I need to see a map. Verbal directions are mostly meaningless to me. If I can see it, I do much better. My weakness is that if I actually do think I know where I’m going, I can be pretty stubborn about it. It’s easy to convince ourselves we know where we are going when we really don’t. That’s true on the road, and it’s true in life. Solomon has some wisdom here for the latter. Let’s take a look.

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Who Do You Want to Be?

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In this third part of our series, God Moved into the Neighborhood, we take a look at the fact that Jesus came to see us become our truest, God-created selves.  In a world that encourages us to be true to ourselves, this advice only makes sense if we know to which self we are seeking to be true.  Read (or listen) on to learn more…

 

Who Do You Want to Be?

If you spend much time listening closely to modern pop music you will quickly come to discover that one of the banner themes of this age is: Be True to Yourself.  For example, singer Katy Perry has a song called “Firework” that was on Billboard’s Top 40 chart for almost a year including some time at the number 1 spot.  At least part of the reason for this success, I would argue, is that the song taps into a longing in the human spirit to be more than we currently are.  Now, I happen to think this is an entirely Biblical idea.  We are called by guys like Paul and Peter and John to become fully reflective of the image of Christ which is far greater than any image we can produce on our own.  Perry, however, isn’t thinking in these terms.  Listen to some of the lyrics: “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?  Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin, like a house of cards, one blow from caving in? . . . Do you know that there’s still a chance for you ‘cause there’s a spark in you?  You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine. . . .You don’t have to feel like a waste of space.  You’re original, cannot be replaced.  If you only knew what the future holds.  After a hurricane comes a rainbow.  Maybe the reason why all the doors are closed [is] so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.” Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 21:2

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“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”  (ESV)

There is absolutely no better salesman on the rightness of what we plan to do than ourselves.  We can convince ourselves of literally anything given enough time and motivation.  If left to our own devices, we can justify just about any behavior.

One of the most popular slogans of our culture today is to follow your heart.  As warm and fuzzy as this advice is made to sound, however (and nobody has worked quite so hard to make it the central thought of every young person than Disney), the truth is that it is awful advice.  Absolutely awful.

Because of sin, our hearts are hopelessly corrupt and deceptive.  If we follow our own hearts we are going to find our way into nothing but trouble and lots of it.  If instead we turn ourselves over to the God who defines right and wrong and let Him be our guide regardless of where our heart is telling us to go, the likelihood of our finding ourselves on the right track goes up enormously.

The Lord weighs the heart.  Let us let Him weigh ours so that we stay following after Him on the path to life.