Heart Directions

Having raised eight children in southern California, we spent many fun days at the supposedly “happiest place on earth”--Disneyland! The “theology” of Disney is unavoidable. Almost every Disney movie that our children enjoyed had an underlying worldview and mantra of “follow your heart.” As a dad, I think my kids got sick of me saying, “Kiddos that is terrible advice!”

The prophet Jeremiah warned against this common Western value by saying, “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). This is not to say that we should not pursue the things that we love and are gifted to do. However, the person who lives doing whatever his heart wants will often experience disappointment and a lack of human flourishing. As essential as our physical heart is to human health, so is our immaterial or internal heart to spiritual health. I like to define our immaterial heart as “the you, you talk to when you talk to yourself.” It is our deepest internal center of thinking and feeling, and it needs care and direction much like our physical hearts.

This internal heart was not designed to be in charge or serve as the director of our lives. I love the way the Apostle Paul addresses this as he wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians. “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5). As believers, we need our hearts to be directed rather than being directed by our hearts. Paul longs for the Lord to direct our hearts in two directions: the love of God and the faithfulness of Christ.

With our hearts embracing His unconditional love we are compelled to love and live for His glory and other’s good. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” The Apostle John reminds us that it is God’s love that empowers to love others selflessly. “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). Our hearts need direction from the Lord, because left to ourselves we will focus on self-love and pursuing our own selfish desires to our own discontent and dissatisfaction.

With our hearts embracing the faithfulness of our Lord, we will be able to enjoy His presence rather than feeling all alone or abandoned by God or others. Jesus is faithful and keeps His promises—one of which is that He will be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). Following our own hearts will often lead to heartache and discontent. Allowing our hearts to be directed by the Lord so that we embrace His love and faithfulness provides an anchor for our souls through the inevitable seasons of storm that come our way throughout our journey in this life.

Do you have this anchor for your heart. Jesus invites us all to, “Come ..., all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

May the Lord direct our hearts!