Follow Your _________!
/“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” — Matthew 22:37
Fill in the blank: Follow your _________!
For many, the answer would naturally be your heart. We live in a world that encourages us to follow our hearts. Be true to yourself. Trust your gut. Do what you feel you should do.
Let me ask you, how’s that working out for you? It has never worked very well for me. In fact, that logic is what has placed me in some of the worst circumstances of my life.
The heart of a person is their core. It encompasses their emotions, perspectives, thinking patterns and will. It is who we are in and of ourselves. Do you see the problem?
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things. / And desperately wicked; / Who can know it?”
The problem is man’s heart is shaped by the world in which we live. Morals change. Ethics change. What was acceptable fifty years ago is repulsive now. And what was repulsive is now accepted. We, whether we admit it or not, are shaped by the world in which we live to some degree. Some less, some more, but all are skewed.
Jesus never told us to follow our hearts!
In fact, He said the exact opposite. He told the Pharisee lawyer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)
Think about it a minute. Don’t gloss over it because it is a familiar verse. What Jesus is saying is all encompassing. He is telling us to bring our hearts into subjection to Him. To put our souls into His hands. And to be renewed in the way we think.
Jesus’ simple call to all is, “Follow Me!”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 prophesied how our hearts and souls move from death (stone) to life, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
And Paul shows how the inward change is lived out, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you my prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
In other words:
Don’t follow your heart! Follow your LORD!
Be born again in your soul and come alive to who He created you to be.
And be transformed in the way you live by renewing your mind.
We were never meant to live in and of ourselves. We were not created to follow our heart. Our hearts, souls and minds were created to be directed by our Savior.
Lord, I pray this day that you would show me the areas of my life where I am following my own heart. Give me the strength and courage to trust You to live through me; to lead my heart and soul and mind in those moments. Amen.
© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.
