Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 100

Should I Base My Decisions on How I Feel?

          Should I base my decisions on how I feel? The answer is, no. Are your emotions ever wrong? I mean do you ever feel like you need to take revenge even though vengeance is the Lord’s? We know from experience that our emotions are not always right because they do not guide us to the right things all the time, they definitely are not foolproof. The world has a little saying about your emotions; it is “follow your heart!” but is this Biblically true? Should you base your decisions on your hearts’ desire? Let’s see what Scripture says:

“Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.”  Proverbs 23:19 NIV

“Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 NIV

“But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.'”  Jeremiah 18:12 NIV

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34 NIV

          These Scriptures are just a small taste of the many that the Bible contains on the heart. Do you have a pure or evil heart? You can know because it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. The point that I want you to grasp is this: we cannot look within ourselves, our hearts, to determine what is right and true.

         Our culture believes that truth is relative, in other words, that truth is based on what you believe or what you think in your head is true. But that is not the truth, it is a lie! We have lots of plans that we set in our hearts, but God decides whether or not they will come to fruition. We can struggle against God’s will and commit the heinous acts that some hearts desire like fornication, hate, adultery, and hypocrisy all because we follow what our hearts. Do you see the danger in following your heart?!

          Please take a moment and think about this before you go on with your day: it is important to realize the folly of following your sinful heart; otherwise, you will believe one of the lies that will bind you down and depress you—all because you didn’t apply the Bible’s warnings of following your heart to your life!

Emotion is often not a ‘soul prodding’ from the Holy Spirit.