He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But he who walks wisely will be delivered.
Proverbs 28:26
We live in a society driven more and more by what it feels, rather than by a standard of objective truth. At every level, from our lawmakers to the homemaker, objective truth as in God’s Word, plays second fiddle at best, to feelings about right and wrong, just and unjust, good and evil. Hence we see laws against crimes of violence, sexual perversion, fraud and a host of other criminal acts being softened. We see homes where feelings direct marriages, raising children and parental responsibility resulting in weak and broken marriages and dysfunctional families.
The problem is simple. The more mankind moves away from God’s standard of truth on such matters, the more we will rely on our feelings. That is, our hearts/feelings become the decider of what is right or what is wrong - what is good and what is evil.
The sad part about all this is that even believers can fall into this trap. We see more and more how the church is excluding God’s truth- His Word, in order to pander to a feeling orientated spiritual direction. God calls those who do so “a fool.”
I like this quote from C.J. Mahaney’s book, The Cross Centred Life,
We think with our feelings,” Sinclair Ferguson has said. It’s true. We allow our feelings to guide our thinking and we shouldn’t. Emotions are a wonderful gift from God. And our relationship with God should bring to our lives strong godly affections. However, our emotions shouldn’t be vested with final authority. This should be reserved for God’s Word alone.