Shownotes
This episode discusses the importance of seeking guidance from God rather than relying solely on our own understanding. We discuss the biblical principle found in Proverbs 3:5-6, which emphasizes trusting the Lord with all our hearts and seeking His will in all we do. I highlight the misconception that we should always "trust our hearts," explaining that our hearts can be deceitful and lead us astray. We explore how understanding biblical teachings can provide us with clear directions in our lives, particularly through the letters of Paul to early churches. Ultimately, we aim to align our hearts with God’s will to lead a fulfilling and purposeful life.
Takeaways:
- Trusting in the Lord with all your heart is essential for receiving guidance in life.
- The heart is deceitful and cannot always be trusted to lead us in the right direction.
- Scripture provides clarity and direction for living a life aligned with God's will.
- We must examine the advice we receive from the world against the truth of the Bible.
- Daily prayer and gratitude are fundamental practices that keep us connected to God's desires.
- Living in accordance with God's teachings leads to a more joyful and purposeful life.
Links referenced in this episode:
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcripts
Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays.
Let's get started with our topic today, which is
A guarantee of good directions, also known as assurance of guidance.
Our verses for today are from Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6.
And this is in the new living translation where it says, "trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."
As you've most likely realized from previous podcasts, just because you've become a Christian doesn't mean you know how to live as a Christian. When you became one, God didn't simply reprogram you to always do what he wants you to do. And you can't trust yourself innately to know what to do.
One of the biggest lies today that almost everybody believes is this little saying that we're supposed to trust our hearts. There are lots and lots of quotes, advice, podcasts, videos, everything that promote this. Let me read you just a couple quotes I found online.
These are both from actors, first Leslie Ann Warren and then Henry Winkler. Not exactly the most trusted advice givers, but anyway, this is very typical to what people believe.
Where Leslie Ann first says, "trust your own instincts. Go inside. Follow your heart right from the start. That's the path to happiness."
And then Henry Winkler says, "your inner voice, your instinct, your heart knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path."
Well, those just simply aren't true, as some of us have learned the hard way. But quotes like this are all over. Following our hearts really doesn't lead us down the right path into happiness, though.
We need to examine this advice if we're to live faithfully as disciples of Jesus. Now let's look a little bit at what the Bible says about our hearts. Our heart is that deep core inside you that guides your life.
On the Got Questions site, it defines it this way when it says the heart is that spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell. What we need to look at as we look for good directions in life.
If we want to travel the road of life, of becoming more and more like Jesus, we need to look at what is inside this inner core, what determines the contents of our heart? Are there times we can trust it and times we can't? It's important to know what we're starting with.
The Got Questions site also goes on to tell us where we are on our own before we meet God in our hearts. And this is what it says, and this isn't very positive, so prepare yourself.
It says "the human heart in its natural condition is evil, treacherous and deceitful. Jeremiah 17:9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
In other words, they go on to say, the fall where people turned away from God has affected us at the deepest level. Our mind, emotions and desires have been tainted by sin, and we're blind to how pervasive the problem is.
What's really challenging about this, I think more than anything else, is the part that says our hearts are deceitful.
Now, when we're confronted with a temptation, our heart will never say to us, oh, this will cause you to get sick, go broke, or be emotionally devastated. No, our heart always presents a scenario where whatever we really want will taste great. And it probably doesn't have very many calories in it anyway.
Whatever we can't afford, we think, oh, but it'll just feel so good to own this. And somehow or other we'll get an extra job, we'll get a bonus, a cash refund, whatever. And we can pay off the credit card that way.
Or this person that we know nothing about looks so good. And perhaps this will be the one that will bring us a fantasy love of our life.
Why do we always do these things?
Yes, our hearts are part of it, but we can't forget that we are involved in spiritual warfare. And our enemy Satan and all the demons that he has out there helping him always lie.
From the very first time he confronted humanity in the Garden of Eden, he told them that going against God can eating the fruit would make them wise and they'd be like God. He neglected to mention that they would also die first spiritually, gradually, in a physical sense, and finally eternally. It's the same for us today.
A bit of us dies every time we listen to the enemy and not to God. And again, Satan and his demons never give up. They never shut up.
As long as you are in this life, you will hear that irritating chatter in your head sometimes.
I've said that I think one of the most wonderful things about heaven, and there's going to be a lot, is that we won't have those voices in our heads anymore. But we have them now. So what do we do?
Well, Jesus came up with a solution when he was talking to the Pharisees of his day and they were spouting off all kinds of things that are in incorrect when he said, you're in error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God. We know what's right, what's wrong, which way to go when we look at the Scriptures, when we look at the Bible and see what it has to say.
Now, in looking at your Bibles for clear directions, one of the places that's really good to start is in some of the letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to young churches.
The books in the New Testament that are especially helpful in this way include 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Ephesians and Philippians.
I recommend when you read these, read them in something like the New Living or the Message translation, because it's so much harder to miss the point of what the Bible's saying when you can really understand it. Here's an example of what I mean in First Corinthians 13. This is the love chapter that you hear at weddings and all that.
And it sounds really nice where you hear things like,
"Charity suffereth long and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up"
All this and that about charity sounds really nice, but the Message translation makes us look at how we treat people a little more honestly.
Where it says, "Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it can't have.
Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others. Isn't always me first."
These books that I'm recommending in the Bible were originally letters written to people living in challenging urban environments. They knew nothing about how they were expected to live once they became Christians.
Now here's another passage of really practical advice, this time from First Thessalonians. This is verses 13 through 15 where it says, "Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part.
Gently encourage the stragglers and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs and be careful when you get on each other's nerves that you don't snap at each other.
Look for the best in each other and always do your best to bring it out. Be cheerful no matter what. Pray all the time. Thank God, no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live."
Now some people make doing God's will into some mysterious quest. But it isn't. Read the Bible passages like this, they couldn't be more clear.
When you do that, you will progressively align your heart with God's heart and you'll be doing what pleases him. And it will give you a joyful, peaceful and purposeful life. Let me close with a reminder of some of the passages that we just looked at.
"Love others more than yourself. Never give up on love. Be cheerful no matter what. Pray all the time.
Thank God, no matter what happens, this is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live."
These are all great directions for Hobo Souls. Lots more good stuff is in the book the Bible.
Read it and you'll know which way to go, no matter what decision you faced on the direction you ought to take in life.
That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com.
For now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.
May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hollow soul, no more a transient wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.
