Jeremiah
17:9 The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand
it?
Many people fall into the
trap of believing that God speaks to them through subjective means. That is, that
God speaks to us through our emotions, impressions, signs, feeling of peace or
our sense of unease. The danger is that many people elevate this above God’s
primary means of communication found in the Bible. When these feelings become
our authority for making decisions we have turned away from the objective
truths of Scripture.
Scripture does not teach us
to “tune in to our inner voice”. In fact, Scripture commands us to study and
meditate on God’s Word. It tells us to cultivate wisdom and discernment (Prov.
4:5-8). We are told to walk wisely and make the most of our time (Eph. 5:15-16).
God orders us to be obedient to His commands (Deut. 28:1-2; John 15:14).
Never are we told to listen
to our inner promptings or trust our feelings. God actually warns us that our
hearts are so deceitful and wicked that we cannot understand them (Jer. 17:9).
We should be very careful not to make our decisions based on our feelings,
impressions or inner voices.
Feelings and emotions are
not good indicators of a right or wrong decision. You could be at peace with a
decision that was in conflict with God’s Word. Jonah of Old Testament fame is a
great example. God told him to go to Nineveh but Jonah got on a boat and sailed
away. Remember that while on the boat a great storm arose while Jonah was sound
asleep in the boat. The storm terrified the other sailors. Jonah had perfect
peace about his decision but was completely out of God’s will.
Take care to not give
too much authority to your feelings in your decision making or other areas of
life. Rather, you should hold to God’s Word as the objective and final
authority for your decisions. With Scripture you will not be tossed around by
the storms of life.
