Follow your heart?Really?

emilymphotography.wordpress.com

I remember a friend once told me that the Lord had spoken to her about her husband. He had specifically told her who he was and she was supposed to be at alert and ready, or so.

Another friend also told me at some time that the Lord had told her the names of her husband. She mentioned his first middle and last names. She must have got it in a revelation or dream, or so.

 I used to get confused about hearing from God. How do you hear? The audible ‘still small’ voice? The impression in your heart? A word from another person who may serve as a channel? A specific bible verse?

I believe God is not limited in his dealings with his children. He can decide to speak to you in any way form or manner, the problem is usually our fluttering hearts.

But what has me thinking now are the ‘voices’ we hear. How do we know for sure what we have heard is from God and not some random musings and thoughts in our anxious hearts?

 Imagine all the issues you have to face everyday. Your career, family, marriage, children, cars, accommodation, relations, in laws, colleagues, health, church, facebook J to mention a few. All these have thoughts, imaginations, plans and ideas running through your head at breakneck speed, falling over themselves to get your attention.

Your mind then becomes a mesh of jumbled feelings in the continual process of sorting and prioritizing, if not left unsorted and unattended to.

 So how? How you can be sure what you have heard from God did not actually arise from anxieties in one of these areas?

Concerning matters of the heart, we counsel people to ‘Follow your heart’. This is tricky. Very tricky. How can you follow your heart when it is besieged on all sides and under continuous stress from matters both within and beyond your control? Does an anxious, oversensitive, maybe even confused, scared and uncertain heart have the ability to lead you? Really?

The bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked. Now try that on for size. Can a less than perfect heart lead you right 100% of the time? But I have a good heart, you may say. I’m just a simple, nice cool headed fellow trying to get through life.

 But think of the times when you felt you acted out of form? You spoke a demeaning word to someone, maybe a friend, sibling or employee. Overreacted to something you could have overlooked? And then you felt guilty afterwards? Where did that come from? Your heart, isn’t it?

What am I saying here? We cannot trust our own hearts. When it comes to hearing from God, taking decisions and living the God kinda life, God is our best and only fool proof option.

After I have obeyed and done all I have to do, I will stand by the word of God. If all fails, I have an anchor that will never give way.

Both my friends are married today but not to the men they thought God had spoken to them about. What happened? I daresay they heard their own hearts speak.Contrary to what you might think, they were not immature Christians at the time of their seeming revelation, but their hearts got in the way.

It’s easy to say follow your heart and look at issues through rose coloured glasses but we know that tough choices have to be made, the outcome of which is pivotal to the quality of life we live.

As long as we are in this body, there will always be opportunities to be misguided and misled by our ‘good intentions’.

See Phillipians 2:5a

May the Lord help us to rise above them.

S&H,

Roy