The Dangers of “Following Your Heart”

If you scroll through your social media or Pinterest feed, watch a movie, or listen to today’s top music hits, you will eventually come across the phrase “follow your heart.”

The popular mantra sounds innocent enough, but what does ‘following your heart’ really mean? And, more importantly, what does the Bible say about it?

Here’s just a few examples of scripture that mention the heart:

Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Jeremiah 17:9,10a, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart; I test the mind…” (emphasis mine).

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

From these examples, it’s clear that Christians should think twice before following their hearts. Let’s take a close look at why that is.

Why Is “Following Your Heart” Unbiblical?

The problem with following our hearts is that (1) our hearts are naturally sinful because of our sin nature, and (2) our hearts replace God as the authority in our lives, since we no longer follow His will, but our own.

Living by the mantra “follow your heart” places trust in ourselves, which numerous Scripture passages warn against (i.e. Jeremiah 17:5, Proverbs 3:5). Trusting in ourselves alone is dangerous because it elevates us over God as the ultimate authority, as we think we know better and that we are greater. Instead, our trust should be placed solely in God, whose ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8,9).

When we invite Jesus into our hearts and lives, we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior. The Oxford English Dictionary defines lord as a “master or ruler.” So, when we ask Jesus to be our Savior, we submit to Him as our Lord and Master, allowing Him to rule over everything—our lives, our decisions, even our hearts—because we trust Him. We have surrendered to His rule.

It also means that we submit our wills to His perfect will.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

God’s will is always our best option; it is always for our good (Jer. 29:11). Yet, when we decide to follow our hearts, we reject God’s will for us, pursuing instead our own flawed wills.

A good example of this is found in Matthew 16:21-26. Here Jesus rebukes Peter for saying that he would never let the harm that Jesus foretold come to Him. I used to be puzzled by what seemed to be Jesus’ overly harsh rebuke when He said to Peter in verse 23, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me…” After all, Peter was only trying to protect Jesus.

But the rest of verse 23 explains why Jesus responded with such severity: “… for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Jesus reacted the way He did because Peter was in conflict with the will of God. Peter meant well, but he didn’t understand what Jesus’ death would accomplish. He could only see Jesus’ unjust suffering and gruesome death. Yet, without that, God’s plan of salvation for you and me could not have been completed.

I pray that our lives will reflect what Jesus prayed moments before His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane: “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

The Effects of Following Your Heart

In a culture that is obsessed with “self,” we as Christians must be vigilant to not let such a self-centered mindset permeate our lives. Following our hearts is only one part of the blatant idolatry surrounding us today—the idolatry that replaces the one true God with ourselves and our desires.

The phrase “follow your heart” makes us feel good—like we have the power to control our lives. It gives us a false sense of authority—one that only God has.

When people follow their hearts and do whatever they wish, there are consequences not only for themselves, but also for the people around them. They foolishly disrupt or ruin the lives of others simply because they were following wherever their sinful hearts led.

These are just a few of the effects God wanted to save us from when He told us to obey Him and surrender all to Him because He knows far better than we do.

Thankfully, God provides a better way for us to live. By walking in His will, we can have peace, joy, and hope, knowing our lives are in the hands of our omniscient God Who loves us unconditionally (John 3:16)

Follow Christ

The mantra “follow your heart” is unbiblical (see Proverbs 3:5,6). Living by it places our trust in our sinful, deceitful, and desperately wicked hearts, and elevates our wills above God’s perfect will.

The Bible is clear that we are to place our trust in our loving Father. His will is always better than anything we could imagine.

Let’s trust Him above all else, following Christ as we walk in His ways.