Follow Your Heart

Is it really wrong for Christians to follow their hearts?

Introduction

It’s been said at sundry times and divers manners that the phrase, “follow your heart” is the false gospel of man, and that nothing could be more damnable than that. Many have even dubbed this the gospel of Disney, which isn’t unmerited, given that it’s pretty much the theme of every movie they have ever produced. And, in fact, it was the title of the theme song of the 2002 release, Cinderella 2:

“Who's to say the rules must stay the same forevermore. Whoever made them had to change the rules that came before. So make your own way, Show the beauty within. When you follow your heart. There's no heart you can't win

So reach for the sky. It's not high as it seems. Just follow your heart. Go as far as your dreams Dare if you want to. Don't fear you'll fall. Take a chance 'cause it's better than never to chance it at all

There's a world for the changing. And you've just begun. Don't let them tell you it's simply not done. When you follow your heart, You'll shine bright as the sun”

Because we’re told to follow our heart early and often in life, through every form of media, and because it seems so culturally engrained, most of the orthodox – certainly the Reformed among us, have railed against, “following your heart” in word or print. In fact, It’s not uncommon to hear, “Don’t follow your heart,” or, yours truly, has even said in the past that following your heart is the stupidest thing that you can do.

However, is this true? Even asking the question seems tantamount to heresy. So let me just ask again, so as too wet the chops of the heresy hunters among us, is following your heart wrong? Or perhaps, a better why of asking the question would be, “is following your heart always wrong?” Is it wrong as a matter of principle without context or equivocation…is it always wrong – all the way down and all the way through.

I fully realize I may be swimming upstream on this one, or maybe running against the wind, but I most assuredly assure you that I am not pissing against the wind. The former being difficult while the later, is well, just plain ol’ stupid. The Reformed listener, is probably even smiling to themselves thinking, “How are you not pissing into the wind on this one?” That great Reformer himself John Calvin said,

“Man’s nature (or heart), so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”

And Blaise Pascal, that great Frenchy said,

“What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.”

Surely, if man is a walking contradiction then following your heart would be…stupid.

Add to that, that fact that, following your heart seems to be the calling card of just about

everybody who identifies as LGBTQIA2+. Surely that’s not good. And above and beyond all of that, we have the Scriptures that clearly tell us, in no uncertain terms, that the heart of natural man is foolish and dead.

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:1-3

Jeremiah wastes no time and mixes no words when he says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9.

And Paul describes it this way in Ephesians 2:1-3,

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

So the heart is deceitful above all things, and is dead in sin and we are, by nature a children of wrath following the devil. Surely, it would not be advisable to follow heart – right?

Follow Your Heart

First, let me just affirm everything said above – amen and praise the Lord. We are naturally born into this world under the curse of Adam. The effects of the fall are total and there is not a square inch of our person that is not affected and infected by sin. We are naturally rebels against the living and true God. We are image bearers designed by the Almighty to reflect His glory, and this is the source of all our joy.

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We were made to fellowship with the Triune God. When Adam, our covenant head and representative sinned, choosing his will above God’s, he/we were cast out of God’s presence, and everything that goes along with that. In the Garden, Adam could sin or not sin. Post Fall, he could not not sin. And we, in Adam, have the same nature of our first father. The very nature of sin is to put ourselves in the seat of God, thinking ourselves to be the center of the universe and the standard of everything holy, righteous and true.

In Adam, the most foundational form of idolatrous worship begins with the unholy trinity of me, myself and I…Naturally, rocking out some Toby Keith, because all we want to do is talk about me, I wanna talk about I, I wanna talk about number one…me, me, me, me. All this to say, that without faith it is impossible to please God.

The 1689, chapter 6 section 4 says this,

“All actual transgressions arise from this first corruption. By it we are thoroughly biased against, and disabled and antagonistic toward all that is good, and we are completely inclined toward all that is evil.”

So yes, all of this is true, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that He has redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. The work of Christ is total – it runs all the down and all the way through. He didn’t just pay the penalty and die for our sin. He didn’t just cloth us in His righteousness.

He didn’t just bring us into fellowship with the Father. All of those things are true and much more also, but for purposes of our discussion right now, we have to celebrate the fact that the Father, through Christ, has given us a new heart. In Christ we are a new creation and He is our New Covenant Head. In response to acknowledging the nature and corruption of man in Ephesians 2, Paul continues,

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:4-10.

We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. From where do these good flow from? They flow from, and are the fruit of a regenerate heart in Christ. The heart is the very core of a person’s being. Yes, we still have to war against the corruptions of the flesh, and the presence of indwelt sin, but we ought never ever minimize the fact that we have new hearts in Christ, free to obey, free to create, free to build, and free to worship.

Yes, the salvation we have in Christ is entirely a work of the Father, Son and Holy

Spirit…hallelujah and praise God for that. But we are also told to work out our salvation with free and trembling, for it is the Lord who works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. Yes, it is all of God, even our desire to work it out, however, the closer our heart is conformed to His heart the greater the desire of our heart should be to work it out.

We certainly wouldn’t say, don’t follow your heart, when the heart is set ablaze for Christ.

Therefore, we can’t in principle say, “never follow your heart.” In fact Jesus Himself says,

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38

And the Psalmist says,

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:3-4.

Not all desire is evil. A lot of reformed people very aware of the doctrine of total

depravity, are quick to profess that salvation is entirely a one-sided act of God, but then they continue to feel like crap about it.

Jesus didn’t save us so that we can sit in a state of persistent morbid introspection. Or so that we can exist in a state of constant analysis paralysis, never doing anything because we are constantly questioning our motivation as if all desire, and ambition is bad. Here, again, it’s not a matter of whether but which. Every single last one of us is going to act in accord with our greatest desires. There is no question whether or not we are going to do that – we will, the real question is which glory is the end of the desires.

What is the telos, or the end goal of said ambition and pursuit? Jesus said,

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33.

Surely, that’s not bad. Surely, we should pursue that with all our heart, soul, mind and

strength…perhaps we may even say we should pursue that with a holy violence. The measure of a man is determined by what he desires, not that he has desires. This is why Augustine said,

“See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”

Many have paraphrased this in the following way, “Love God and do as you please.” Augustine here, is not promoting any form of selfish ambition (James 3:16-23) – not at all – in fact, just the opposite. He is promoting a godly ambition, a godly desire. Most would agree with that, However, all this talk still makes most Christians nervous.

Doug Wilson writes,

“But Christians are still (understandably) suspicious about ambition. Can’t this sort of thing go terribly wrong? Well, of course it can, but there is also a parable about burying a talent in a handkerchief (Luke 19:20). Lack of ambition can go terribly wrong also. Has no one ever lost anything precious through timidity, hesitation, or cowardice.”

Amen and amen, and I would hope anyone paying attention to what’s happening in the church today would say that the latter (timidity, hesitation and cowardice) are much bigger threats and challenges to overcome than too much ungodly ambition. Again, to quote Wilson,

“The way up is the way down. This is what is meant by true ambition’s path. How clearly do we see the fact that Jesus humbled Himself? Being ambitious to get low is a great purifier. Going high without getting low is corruption. Getting low and staying low is unbelief. So a humility that refuses to be raised up, that refuses to receive God’s promises to humility, is not really humility. To be ambitious in God’s world means embracing God’s way of getting there. It also means embracing God’s way of not staying where you are.”

The fact of the matter, we are all distinct individuals created by God with different attitudes, aptitudes, gifts and abilities and experiences and so on. When Christ redeems us, He redeems all of us. Which means not only will the church be blessed in a multitude of ways but so too the world. And this is all for the sake of dominion.

All of this say, that when we come to Christ, we don’t become a bunch of automatons losing any and all individuality, in fact, just the opposite is true. Just look at Peter, John and Paul, for example. And, I bet if I asked you to name five of your favorite pastors, or teachers, or authors of leaders they would all be pretty distinct individuals…that is, their gifts and abilities, and strengths and weaknesses and communication styles and backgrounds would be widely divergent.

This to say, that when our hearts are brought into conformity to Christ we don’t lose our

individuality, but rather the light of Christ shines more brightly through that individuality. This is important for us to understand and celebrate, again – in Christ, because there is such a push towards conformity in the public square, and in corporate American and the church has not been unaffected by this with many churches and organization and networks being run like little socialists states.

We should resist any attempt to be pressed into a mold. Bezalel and Oholiab were given ability, and intelligence, and knowledge and a mastery of the crafts. That’s not something you suppress, you open that gate and let that horse run free, or perhaps, dare I say follow their heart.

Conclusion

Let me just end where we began – with the words of Cinderella, but I would like to change the spelling of the last word of the song from sun to Son.

“There's a world for the changing. And you've just begun. Don't let them tell you it's simply not done. When you follow your heart, You'll shine bright as the sun” (Son).