“Follow your heart. Go with your gut. Trust you feelings.”

These are popular statements. And before I sound too negative, let me just say there are times when your heart, gut and feelings have important things to teach you.

But they’re not God. It follows, therefore, that if your heart, gut, or feelings urge you to do something that goes against God, don’t follow, go with, or trust them!

But how do you know the difference?

Here’s a simple rule. You can’t know God’s will if you don’t know God’s word.

One of my favourite verses is Acts 17:11. Some Jews in Berea are described as noble. After listening to Paul’s preaching “they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Did you see it? In order to determine if what Paul said was true, they tested his words against the Scriptures! If his words lined up, great; if not, he was leading them astray.

There are some things we can learn about God in nature and by observing the world—theologians call this ‘general revelation’ (see Psalm 19:1-6). And there are times when people can discern something about God simply because God gave them a conscience (see Romans 2:14-15). But the specifics about his commandments, promises and ways are found in the Bible. 

Life can be confusing. You have tonnes of decisions to make each and every day. Be like the noble Bereans as you seek to serve God as the hands and feet of Jesus. 

You can’t know God’s will if you don’t know God’s word.

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Notes:

–Podcast Bible study: “Betrayal and in the Garden of Gethsemane.” Click here or subscribe to ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ wherever you subscribe to podcasts.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.