Do Not Listen to Your Heart

Roxette’s single “Listen to Your Heart” hit number one on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1988. I was in college at the time. Not a bad song. But what happens when “listen to your heart” becomes the basis for one’s theology? Take the following meme as an example...

Believe it or not, “listen to your heart” theology is quite prevalent in many circles. What does God think of you? Listen to your heart. What does God want you to do about such-and-such? Listen to your heart. It sounds so easy. It sounds so convincing. It sounds so right. But is it?

Search the Scriptures. Nowhere does God tell you to listen to your heart when it comes to matters of faith. Nowhere does God tell you that He speaks to you in your heart. Nowhere does God tell you to search for Him in your heart. Nowhere! The reason why many love listening to their heart is because one’s heart can say whatever one wants it to say—often times contrary to God’s Word.

So where do you turn to know what God thinks of you? To know what He says to you? To know where He locates Himself for you? Instead of listening to your heart, listen to God’s holy and inerrant Word. Don’t believe me? Then believe God. Here is a sampling of God extolling His own Word so that you may know what He thinks of you, what He says to you, and where He locates Himself for you...

Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. [Deuteronomy 8:3] 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. [Psalm 119:105] 

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” [John 17:17] 

These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. [John 20:31] 

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. [Romans 10:17] 

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. [Romans 15:4] 

From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [2 Timothy 3:15-17] 

No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. [2 Peter 1:21]

So go ahead and look for Christ this Christmas (as the meme says). But do not look to your heart, for even a Christian’s heart is full of vile things (cf. Matthew 15:19; Romans 7:18-19) and so easily goes astray. Look instead to that place where Jesus Christ has promised to be found for you. For your good. For your forgiveness, life, and salvation. You will find Him wrapped up in the swaddling cloths of His holy Word and blessed Sacraments, lying in the manger of His Church. All for you!