The Antidote to 'Following Your Heart'
Why God's Word matters when your emotions and desires get the best of you.
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 3:16-17
Tao lang ako, hindi ko napigilan ang nararamdaman ko.1
Have you ever found yourself saying these words when you are confronted with your sins and mistakes? Haven’t you said that you merely did those things because your emotions got the best of you?
Yes, you are an emotional being. You feel love, joy, peace, sadness, anger, pain, hatred, and a whole host of emotions. You also react based on what you feel. When you feel hungry, you go straight to the fast-food drive-thru and order a cheese-burger that the doctor had recently prohibited you from taking. When you feel hatred towards someone who betrays our trust, you become an instant keyboard warrior and type out in a public post the long list of sins of the one you hate. When you feel a sexual longing for your girlfriend, you spend time alone with her, getting more intimate and more touchy - why? In order to satisfy that sexual need you feel.2
The scariest thing about this, however, is that you are being convinced by our culture that expressing, pursuing, and giving in to our emotions is not wrong. Some are also saying it is very healthy for you to do so. We hear from product advertisers, Instagram influencers and movie characters to “follow what your heart tells you to do.” We witness how our peers follow their sexual pleasures and tell riveting tales of their one-night stands with a stranger they met online without an ounce of grief or regret. We hear confessions of our church kuyas and ates of their failures to remain chaste, giving their explanation for falling: “wala ako magawa, mahal ko talaga siya - kasalanan ba mag-mahal?” In short, we are told: nothing is wrong with emotions and desires getting the best of you.3
Yet it is wrong. Isn’t it?
Deep down you know it is wrong. You even want to be free from being a slave to your feelings. So, how then can you be free from the slavery of your emotions and desires? How can you become the master of your emotions, rather then your emotions becoming the master of you? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 gives us three vital theses or claims: The Word of God keeps you in the truth, it disciplines you, and keeps you mission-minded.
The scariest thing about this, however, is that you are being convinced by our culture that expressing, pursuing, and giving in to our emotions is not wrong.
Thesis 1: God’s Word keeps you in the truth.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God…”
How do we know it’s wrong to follow your heart? How do we know it’s a mistake to do what you feel is right? The Word of God tells us so, and it tells us so truthfully. It tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” (Jeremiah 17:9). It also reveals to us that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12).
So what if the Bible says it’s wrong to follow my heart?
The difference between the millions telling you “to follow your heart” and the Bible telling you that you should not be “following your heart” is this: the millions are not God, but the author of the Bible is God. His Word is breathed out by Him. It was not invented, manipulated, or twisted by men. It is God’s Word made clear to His people. And because God cannot lie, what He says here in His Word - is true. This means when He says that your heart is deceitful and wicked, and that following it leads to death, it means that it will happen to you as well, should you choose to follow your heart. It also means that no matter how freeing and pleasure-inducing the words “you should follow your heart and you will be happy” sounds to you - it is a lie from the pit of hell.
Timothy, the original recipient of this letter, seems also to be tempted to give ear to his feelings. As a pastor of the church in Ephesus, he found preaching and standing firm for the Gospel very difficult. He endured false teaching, accusations of incompetency due to his youth, and the falling away of those whom he ministered to. He was not a stoic. He was not an emotional-less man. For sure he felt discouraged, felt insignificant, and probably wanted to give up or give in from preaching God’s Word. Yet Paul, his mentor, reminded and encouraged him of this wonderful truth - Timothy can continue to be faithful in proclaiming God’s Word because God’s Word is true. It is God-breathed. All his opponents counter-teachings were counterfeits, their accusations invalid, and their departures a result of living lies.
Today, the path of hell is filled with people who are ignoring God’s Word by following your heart. A pastor just recently sent me a picture of a former church volunteer who has left the church and is now marching in the recent Quezon City Pride Parade. Why did she leave the church? Why did she march with the LGBTQ community? The answer: she believed that following her heart is worth more than letting go of what breaks God’s heart.
You may have ordered your life based on this lie: just follow your heart. You are quick to join a church because it makes you feel good and quick to leave it because they make you feel bad. You are quick to enter into a relationship because the girl makes you feel happy and loved, but also quick to leave when you gain nothing from her. You may be quick to serve God because all your friends are there, but now you are all alone, you want to quit.
Don’t. Don’t live your life based on a lie. Don’t follow your heart. But how? How do I stop following my heart?
You may have ordered your life based on this lie: just follow your heart.
Thesis 2: God’s Word keeps you disciplined.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
The antidote to following your feelings is not merely hearing God’s Word, but being disciplined in doing it. Discipline is the art of honing a person to practice a set of actions and choices no matter what situation they are in. Stephen Curry can calmly pick his spot and shoot a three-pointer while under pressure with 0.3 seconds left in game-time because of the practice drills he spent honing his action and choice in such a situation. A Navy SEAL fire team leader can make critical decisions under duress in order to get his team out of trouble just because he has been honing his decision making skills for years in their training courses before deployment. In the same way, a disciplined man of God will make choices based on the habit built in his heart by the Word of God.
The problem with “following your heart” is that it is very arbitrary and emotion-based. This means that what you are doing now may feel good and right, but later on it may suddenly change and make you feel bad. For example, when you break-up with the Christian girl you are pursuing because you are stressed at work and in your relationship, it may feel you are finally free from the demands and expectations of a relationship. Yet later, you may begin to regret your decision and try to retract your decision, only to find out she has moved on and is no longer interested in you. In this scenario - you are to blame. You are to blame because you were not disciplined and trained to take multiple responsibilities in your vocation and relationship.
“All Scripture is… profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” God’s Word is given to you not to mainly condemn you, the Christian. It is given to you to profit you, to bless you. How? It teaches you what to do in circumstances where your heart tells you to do another. It reproofs and corrects you when you are about to embark on the biggest emotional-lead mistake in your life. It trains you to practice righteousness in small things, so that you may be able to practice righteousness in bigger things.
Thesis 3: God’s Word keeps you ready.
…that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
What is the difference between SEAL Teams and the Biggest Loser Competitor (a dieting reality TV competition). The Biggest Loser focus on performance. As long as you are able to lose weight and show that you can live a lifestyle of dieting, you are a winner. The problem is once cameras stop rolling, will you continue? Chances are, many do not continue with their training and dietary programs. Why? Because there is no longer any motivation to do so. Someone else won the prize money, food is nice, food is comfort - so why continue dieting?
The SEAL Teams on the other hand, focus on readiness. It’s not that they don’t perform, they do. They do it well. They plan for their missions, they train for their missions, and they execute their missions effectively. However, once the mission is over, they don’t stop training. Sure they may dial down the intensity and specificity of their training. However, they continue to train, to keep their body healthy and ready for the next mission. Why? Because their training taught them to be ready for any mission that may unexpectedly come.
Like the SEALS, God’s desire for the Christian man is to be ready for whatever He calls him to do. That’s why the Word of God is meant to complete the reader. To be complete does not mean what we mean when we say to a girl we are pursuing, “you complete me.” It does not mean that you have sinless perfection. To be complete means to have the training and knowledge needed to face whatever challenges are thrown in your direction. That’s why other translations translate the verse as being ready for every good work. You are meant to be equipped to face whatever challenge that comes you way. The one that will be useful in your equipping is the Word of God.
To be complete does not mean what we mean when we say to a girl we are pursuing, “you complete me.” It does not mean that you have sinless perfection. To be complete means to have the training and knowledge needed to face whatever challenges are thrown in your direction.
Saint, God’s Word is meant to equip you to do good work in whatever circumstance you are facing. This means that when you are in the Word of God, you will be able to do good work as an employee in your company, even if you have a family problem at home. When you meditate on God’s Word, you will be sober-minded enough to stop clicking that perilous link to the porn site. When your heart is open to God’s instruction, you will be able to withstand the temptation of running away from your family when your parents are quarreling. This is because God’s Word equips you for every good work.
Conclusio4
So saint, you who are struggling with following your emotions, your heart - God has given you His Word as your antidote. He has given it to you to keep you in the truth, to discipline you, and to ready you to do good in whatever circumstance you may experience. In a world where you are told to follow your heart, God has faithfully given you an antidote to withstand such a temptation.
Will you use the antidote?
In English: I’m just a human being, I cannot control my feelings.
You may say that you don’t publicly express your emotions. You say you are an introvert. Fine. However, don’t you still react to your emotions, albeit in a different manner? Yes, when you are hungry, you have enough self-control not order the forbidden cheeseburger. Yet will you not be scowling and walking around with a bad mood? Yes, you who hate may not be posting your grievances online, but you may be harboring bitterness in your heart every time you remember what the one you hate did to you. You who feels a sexual longing may still abstain from touching or kissing you girlfriend, but are you sure you are not fulfilling that longing by regularly streaming the 18+ rated shows in Netflix and fast-forwarding to the sensual scenes?
You may say, that’s the backsliders, not me. Yet, don’t you hear yourself often justifying your sins by saying that it was your emotions that led you to it. You didn’t go to church because you felt lazy or disconnected. You didn’t resist the temptation because your sexual urge was just too strong for you. You lashed out at the driver who suddenly cut into your lane because it was his fault! You didn’t think it’s wrong because that’s just the way you feel - and feelings are neither right nor wrong. Yet if that is true, then anything we do because of what we feel should not be wrong - including cheating, adultery, murder, and raping. We have to say that a person who follows his emotions by cheating, fornication, same-sex parenting, raping, and murder cannot be wrong. All these actions are based on emotions getting the best of the perpetrator. One who is a victim cannot cry for justice if we believe “you should always follow your heart.” You might say then, emotional reactions that leads to someone else being hurt is wrong. Really? Then who defines the hurt? Is weightlifting coaching then wrong? Because my muscles really burn when my gym instructor shouts at me to squat. The truth is, deep down, we know that there are times when following our heart leads to sin and destruction.
Yes there is no (n) at the end. Conclusio is Latin for ‘conclusion.’