Can You Trust Your Own Heart

Can You Trust Your Own Heart?

Sunday, January 03, 2010 AM

By Pastor James May

Someone wrote into a magazine article and said, "just follow your heart, it rarely leads you down the wrong path". What do you think? Could that statement be true?

One person said that when she let her heart lead her, she found herself bound into a marriage with a drug abuser because she loved him. She said, “If I had let my head lead me instead of my heart, I would have run the other way.

Now, that brings up another question? Which part of your being is the best part to believe in; your head or your heart? Those are good questions that many psychologists and theologians have tried to answer for a long time.

I believe that God’s Word gives us the answer to these questions in such a manner that anyone who is seeking the truth can find them and understand how to make better choices for every area of your life.

In a recent interview of a 26-year-old Swedish student questions were asked of her about her views on life. One question was this, “Do you believe in God, and do you believe in any religion?” "Absolutely not; only silly people believe in such things”, she answered. "Then how do you know what is right and wrong", she was asked. Her answer was, "My heart tells me."

In a nutshell, this way of thinking and believing, or should I say, non-believing, is the major reason for the great divide within America and between America and much of Europe. The majority of people use their heart -- stirred by their eyes -- to determine in their mind what is right and wrong. Only a small minority of people use the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit to make decisions for their life. Sadly, even within the ranks of Christianity, most people still trust their own thinking or listen to their heart when making decisions. Rarely do you find that man or woman that will make decisions in the manner that God desires.

You could pick almost any issue that is facing our society today and you can quickly see how these opposing ways of determining right and wrong are displayed.

Here are three examples.

Same-sex marriage: If you look at this issue with your heart only then you will find that the heart favors it. If you leave out the Word of God; and ignore God’s Law, then its easy to see whay people say that you have to have a hard heart not to be moved when you see many of the loving same-sex couples who want to commit their lives to one another in marriage. The eyes see the couples; the heart is moved to redefine marriage and the Bible and voice of the Holy Spirit is left out of the decision making process altogether. That’s what’s happening all over the world right now.

Animal rights: The heart favors them. Very few people, including those don’t really care for animals, are not moved in their heart when they see any animal being abused and neglected. The eyes see the cute little puppy or kitten, or some other animal. The heart then equates animal life and human life as all part of God’s creation and says, “that’s just wrong; animals have the right to life and happiness too; and then animals are given equal rights as humans under the law. Now we all know that’s true because you can be arrested for cruelty to animals just as quick, if not quicker, than being cruel to people. Once again, the Bible and it’s rightful interpretation, and the voice of the Holy Spirit are completely ignored when animals are placed on an equal plane with people, even though people are the only ones created in God’s own image and given an eternal soul.

One animal rights group called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) are so moved by the idea of the slaughtering of chickens for food that the organization has a campaign titled "Holocaust on your plate". With their eyes they see the cute little chickens just enjoying life, but being raised only to be killed, plucked, fried, baked and stuffed; or to make KFC or Popeye’s richer. How can these people equate the slaughtering of chickens for food with the Nazi slaughtering of 6 million Jews? In their heart and mind, men and chickens are equal to people and have the right to live and prosper; that’s how!

In reality, I think that chickens are just paying the price for being tattletales. After all, it was a rooster that crowed to let Peter know that he had betrayed Jesus and preachers have been eating chickens ever since just to get even with that no good tattletale bird.