The Dictates of Our Hearts

Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.'” Jer. 23:16-17

As I read this passage in my devotions this morning, the phrase “stubbornly follows his own heart” jumped out at me. This is the spirit of our age. The NKJV renders it “walks according to the dictates of his own heart.”

I wish I had a dollar for every movie and TV show I have watched where the moral has been “follow your heart” or “let your heart decide”.

When people begin to “speak visions of their own minds” they elevate themselves to the place of God. This idea was captured very well today by a very liberal cartoonist who I’m sure had no idea he was illustrating Jerimiah 23.

My task as a missionary (and indeed the task of all citizens of the Kingdom of God) is to proclaim and follow the word that is “from the mouth of the Lord”.

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