"Following My (Deadly) Heart" July 5 Readings: 2 Chronicles 27-28, Acts 8:1–25, Psalm 78:61–67, Proverbs 16:25–26

Today's Readings - 2 Chronicles 27-28, Acts 8:1–25, Psalm 78:61–67, Proverbs 16:25–26

Devotional - Following My (Deadly) Heart 

Follow your heart. If it comes from within you, it can't be wrong. Only you can decide what is right for you. Steve Jobs is famous for this quote.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

This is the relentless message of our culture. Don't listen to dogma (for instance, the teachings of God's Word) but instead listen to yourself and your own inner voice. Does this sound familiar? Isn't that exactly what the serpent told Adam and Eve in the Garden? Didn't he tell them not to listen to what God said, but to listen to their own hearts and desires and that if they did all their hopes and dreams would come true. They would become like gods themselves instead of having to obey God himself!

Satan has been telling the same lies since Creation and they have been working pretty well for him. Our world has bought into this idea with abandon - that right and wrong are what I feel they are and that what is best for me is what my heart tells me to do.

But Solomon had a very different view of life, based on wisdom that came from God. Peruse Proverbs 16:25.

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.

This is not an isolated verse, but a common theme throughout the book of Proverbs. The fool is the one who trusts in himself and listens to his inner voice to guide him. The wise admit that their own understanding is flawed and do not lean on it. Instead, they trust in the Lord and obey him. In this verse, Solomon tells us that a man can be convinced that his path was absolutely right and good, but it is still the way of sin and the path of destruction. Only when we obey God's Word can we be sure that God will make our paths straight.

The bedrock of wisdom is the decision to trust God and obey him instead of trusting self and following our hearts. It is no accident that the enemy pushes this destructive lie so hard in this world. He is pleased when people follow their hearts, knowing that will put them on a path of self-destruction. We must be in God's Word so that we can walk in his ways and experience all of God's blessings.

Father, my heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. I choose to trust in you not in my own wisdom.

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Do you live by your own instincts and desires, or according to the word of God?
It is easy to convince ourselves that our feelings and thoughts are actually God's. It is important to be led of God and by the word!