Deceitful hearts

My heart has been on a roller coaster of emotions lately. For some reason writing helps me feel better for just a moment, because it gives me a way to release some frustrations and think things through.

Here's something to ponder on for a second.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9


I wish that this truth was kept in front of our faces every single moment of our lives. We live in a world that presses the idea to "follow your heart" "listen to what your heart is telling you" Blah blah blah. It sounds romantic and all...but it's so very wrong and often leads a person down the very wrong path...especially concerning love and relationships.

I remember when I was in highschool, once or twice I allowed my heart and mind to plan my entire life around guys that I liked. It's typical of girls to do it, cause we're so stinking emotional and in touch with all that we feel. Anyways, without even knowing a person that well, I would start thinking "I could totally see myself with this person. we have this and this and this in common. I seriously think he could be the one." And on and on.

We get so caught up in our emotions and put ourselves on cloud 9 and FAR away from reality. We allow ourselves to be deceived by what our heart tells us, and don't think twice of who or what we may push over in the process to get what we think is right. Seriously people, at one point in high school I was convinced "in my heart" I was going to marry this famous Christian music artist who was probably like 35 and already married. Good thing I got over it somewhat quickly. That's messed up. haha.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we must be so careful to differentiate heart signals between God-signals. We mustn't take what we believe our hearts are saying and tell God, "Wow, this must be your will for me!" Instead, we need to prayerfully ask God to examine our hearts and to reveal to us through his Holy Spirit His truth and guidance about whatever situation it may be. Now then, how do you know when it's God speaking or your heart speaking?

Well maybe you should take a step back and reevaluate the situation you've found your heart in. By acting on your heart feelings, could you potentially be hurting someone in the process? Could you potentially be hurting yourself? If you can get past your selfish feelings and put all the factors of reality into place, then you can more easily differentiate truth from feeling. If it's from God, he will make it clear to you, IN HIS TIMING. Too often we push and rush love because we don't want to be alone. We don't want to miss out on "Mr. Right". We don't want to be single for the rest of our lives. But in reality we are taking our trust off of God and putting trust in man...in ourselves. We take control and let our deceitful hearts lead the way. Dude, that's scary.

I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this. I guess I just know what it's like to follow my heart in the wrong direction and hurt myself in the process. And now, I also know what it's like to be the "third party" who gets hurt because of someone else putting their heart before truth.

I gotta get over it though.

But I need the Lord's help and tender love. And maybe just a little more time...
I can't do it on my own.