Heart You

Heart You

If you believe in “following your heart,” you need to read this article today. Why? Because sometimes, God will tell you to do things that are contrary to what’s in your heart. You’ll want to go left and He’ll tell you to go right. And if you don’t learn how to choose His way above your own, you’re headed for a whole lot of grief and sorrow.

Have you ever been in a situation that you really wanted to work out, but God said no? Isn’t that a tough place to be? However, it’s better to go through the pain of self-denial, than to ignore God’s warnings and end up hurt.

You know, sometimes, what He tells you and shows you won’t be at all what you want to hear or see. It won’t feel very pleasant. Truthfully, there will be moments when you won’t want to deal with the truth. But deal with it anyway.

Because whenever He tells you to do something, He already has the end in mind. He knows how it will turn out. He is intimately aware of the path you’re traveling. And even though you think you may have the right answers, it would be a grave error not to heed His voice.

Too many times we take God’s goodness for granted, don’t we? We think that we are nearly invincible and can navigate our way through almost anything. But I’m here to let you know, unless God is riding through the storm with you, there’s not a chance that you’ll make it out victoriously.

Let me share something with you. Don’t ever be like the children of Israel

in the book of Joshua 7:1-9 (make sure you read it). They tried to defeat their enemies at Ai, but they were outside of God’s will. In their arrogance they were convinced that this battle would be easy. But the Bible records in verse 5, that they ended up being chased and embarrassed by the opposing forces.

What happened? They failed to obey God’s voice and took of the “accursed thing.” This immediately put them outside of His covenant. They were doing their own thing and ended up in a bad situation.

How many times have we done that? We know God is telling us to avoid certain people and things. But do we listen? Noooo . . . we get caught up in our own plans and ideas. Then, we end up following after our own hearts instead of God’s will.

Remember this. Sometimes, your heart will tell you to do things that aren’t necessarily good for you. Unfortunately, there are times when your heart will take you down a path that leads to nothing but trouble. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind . . .” (Jeremiah 11:9-10a NKJV).

I know that if someone asked you to describe what’s in your heart, “deceitful” and “wicked” probably wouldn’t be the first adjectives that come to mind. But the truth of the matter is, your heart will get you into some stuff that you don’t know how to get out of!

That’s why you have to surrender to the Lord and ask Him to guide you. I know we often say, “Follow your heart.” But sometimes that can be the worst advice to listen to. You can’t rely on your feelings, emotions, and desires to dictate the best choices to make. The only One you can trust is God.

What I want you to do is, give your heart over to the Lord and let Him guide you. Let Him teach you. Let Him tell you what to do. After all, He only wants to protect you. He doesn’t want to see you hurt. He doesn’t want you to veer away from His ark of safety and end up treading dangerous waters that you’re ill-equipped to handle.

Instead of following your heart ask God to guard your heart and cleanse it, so that your will, may be completely and totally sold out, and surrendered to Him. Pray and ask God to do a new work in you. Say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew the right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 KJV).

He’ll do it if you let Him. And once you say yes to His will instead of trying to do things your own way, see if He won’t open the windows of heaven and pour out His goodness upon you.

Until next time . . . may you be empowered to prosper!

© 2007 EEW Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

Dianna Hobbs is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empowering Everyday Women Online Magazine, the premier online magazine for African American Christian women. This article is taken from Dianna's highly popular blog series called, Dianna Hobbs: Empowering Everyday Women. It is circulated to thousands of Christian women in search of inspiration for their ministerial and entrepreneurial efforts. To receive these exceptional articles directly, simply log onto http://www.diannahobbs.com and subscribe to our email updates. To read EEW Magazine log onto http://www.eewmagazine.com

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