The Worst Advice You Can Ever Give (that you have probably already given)

 It happened again just the other day. While scrolling through Facebook, I saw someone giving the worst possible advice to a young woman who was trying to make a huge life decision. It is advice that I see doled out every day to people seeking answers. Advice that I am sure makes the advisor feel sage-like as they sit back and scratch their head as their own life burns.

What is this advice? “Follow your heart.” I know it sounds good and even feels good when we dispense it, but, “Follow your heart” is akin to telling someone to “try the gasoline” when they are trying put out a fire. Why is it so bad? Because the heart is the worst possible place to get decision-making information.

Secular researchers have identified three sources of decision-making information resources in each of us.

The first is the “Heart” – this area is completely dependent upon emotions, which makes it completely unreliable. As emotions and circumstances change, so do our hearts’ directions. The Heart is also influenced by hormonal and chemical imbalances in the body, again making it completely unreliable.

The second is the “Gut” – these are those difficult-to-pin-down feelings that something is right or dreadfully wrong. Difficult to define, the Gut is your experience and your subconscious noticing things your conscious mind has missed, letting you know that something is at odds with the information your conscious mind is receiving. It is much more reliable than the heart, and is heavily influenced by the third factor, the “Mind.”

The Mind is your intellect. It is the facts that you know about the situation. The more you know about a situation, the better the decision you can make. It is by far the best, of the three, at making decisions. But the mind is not without its drawbacks. The Mind and its facts can be manipulated by the Heart, and facts can be made to tell the story the Heart desires.

There is a fourth and more powerful and accurate source for making decisions that is often overlooked by the world and its researchers. That source is God. In addition to having perfect knowledge of coming events, God has given us His Word to lead our decision-making process. He has also given us His Holy Spirit to lead and guide our understanding. And He is always just a prayer away. Consider these verses:

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

And just in case you still don’t think that the Heart is the worst place to look for guidance, this is what God says about our heart:

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Be Good, Pastor Jay

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