I’ve been noticing some phrases that are commonly accepted in society today. They seem innocent enough, but as I considered them more thoroughly, I began to wonder how accurate they really are. Let’s examine some of them in the light of what the Bible says.

When someone is considering a decision, I often hear others encourage them with a phrase such as “follow your heart.” Yet, I wonder if our hearts are actually trustworthy. The Bible says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…,” (Jeremiah 17:9a KJV). This is further confirmed in Proverbs where it says: “Whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool…” (Proverbs 28:26a NKJV). Why would I want to follow my heart after knowing its natural state?

When someone is experiencing health issues, I’ve heard comments such as this. “You have the power to heal yourself” or “You have unconfessed sin that is keeping you from being healed.” When Jesus was on earth, He never walked away from someone begging for healing, saying that they had the power to heal themselves. He never told someone who wanted healing that they had to confess sin first. Of course, after healing someone, He did address their sin, and even told them to go and sin no more.

In a Beetle Bailey cartoon recently, Sarge was grumbling about how he’d like to fix Beetle’s laziness. The chaplain came along and told Sarge that he should not be thinking mean thoughts. Then he added that “everyone has some good in him,” after which Sarge went and stared at Beetle for a while, apparently looking for that goodness. While it is true that people do have the ability to do good things, are we basically good? There is an interesting scripture on this. “A certain ruler asked Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered, ‘No one is good — except God alone,'” (Luke 18:18-19). If Jesus himself attributed goodness to His Father only, why would we think that we are basically good?

Something else I’ve heard is “trust your inner voice.” That voice likely comes from our hearts (and we know what that’s like!) as well as our minds, so we need to consider the state of our minds. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will,” (Romans 12:2 NIV). Since our minds are where the battle between good and evil take place, this says that our minds need renewal. Only when our minds are being renewed as we look to Him for His direction, can we discern more clearly that which will please God.

So far, we’ve learned that our hearts are wicked, and our minds need renewing and only God is good. Therefore, how should we approach life? We should test our thoughts against God’s Word. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,” (I Corinthians 10:5 NIV). This also cautions us to focus on eternity. “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth,” (Colossians 3:2 NIV). Thankfully, there is then an added benefit. “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You,” (Isaiah 26:3 ESV).

Author of a second book, “Journeys in Faith, Pursing Obedience,” containing more than 50 additional devotionals written for The Minot Daily News.