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Our Feelings, Emotions, and Following Our Hearts are Nothing But Deceitful Messes

Writer's picture: Brian DoyleBrian Doyle

Our feelings, emotions, and following our hearts are nothing but deceitful messes. There, I said it right off the bat. Too often, I hear people who want Jesus on their terms saying “I prayed about it, and this is what I felt…” or “my feelings on the matter are…” or some things like that, often as they’re following what they want to do without regard to God’s will. The will of God trumps whatever our wants, wishes and desires are, and it most certainly is above our feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Remember, God said


“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6-9)


Jeremiah states “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (17:9) Do you see a pattern here?


Jesus, as opposed to those who teach “follow your heart,” taught us to pray “Your [the Father’s] Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Life isn’t about us, at all. Life is about seeking God’s will in every facet, from our thoughts, to our actions, to the words we say, to the very breath of our lungs. It’s all to be brought in to complete and utter submission to His authority. Here is where peace lies, here is where hope and joy lie, under the umbrella of the Father’s will. To deviate, one way or the other, from God’s will is to invite anxiety, depression, and spiritual death. We can’t have things our way and still follow Jesus. He’s exclusive that way: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). To follow Jesus means to follow Him exclusively, in spite of what we feel or think. Anything else is deceiving ourselves. Do you want peace and joy in your lives, no matter what your circumstances are? Obey Christ, and find rest.


John 14:8-17


Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.


“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”



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