The longer I live, the more dubious sounds the popular wisdom of couch pillows and coffee mugs advising me to “Listen to your heart.” When push comes to shove (as it invariably does), I’m learning the advice my heart dishes out is likely to lead me astray. Let me instead speak to my heart as the psalmist did, singing to his soul in the key of truth:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.Psalm 42:11
Here, we see the writer interrogating his heart, reminding himself about God. Tim Keller wrote about this practice, calling it “spiritual soliloquy,” riffing on the device used in plays in which a character speaks his thoughts aloud when alone.
In an article for The Atlantic, Keller shared openly about his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the debilitating fear that followed. He found that the necessary headwork and heartwork for a right response came from the words of Scripture. (No surprise there, right?) In Psalm 42:1, “the author is addressing neither God nor the reader, but his own soul, his self. He is not so much listening to his heart as talking to it… He is taking truths about God and pressing them down deep into his heart until they catch fire there.”
Take truth about God and press it down deep into your heart until it catches fire there!
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Whatever you are facing today, I encourage you to engage your head and your heart, using Scripture as your guide. Press the truth down deep. Let it kindle a flame of obedience or courage or perseverance or unselfishness. Ask God to use that flame to provide both light and heat to see you through today’s challenge.
He is faithful.
Understand that you can get bad advice with the click of a button or the swipe of a screen. Websites, podcasts, and even emails served up hot and spicy into the privacy of my email inbox will affirm me in my selfishness, encourage me to drill deeply into my preferences, and cast aside my rootedness in family and local church so I can be more fully “myself”—whoever that is!
Bad advice is conveniently available. Websites, podcasts, and even emails served up hot and spicy into the privacy of my email inbox will affirm me in my selfishness and encourage me to drill deeply into my preferences.
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Susan Shipe has heard the same lies, sibilant and seductive. “Our world is topsy-turvy,” she warns. “What is good is now called evil, and what is evil is now called good.” In Follow Your Heart and Other Lies, she addresses the most prevalent bad advice that the culture is dishing out to the unsuspecting and uninformed.
“All people are children of God.”
“You’re enough.”
“It must be right because it feels so right.”
Advice like this sounds so broad-minded and inoffensive, and yet it’s rooted in poor theology.
“God gained another angel.”
“There are many paths to God.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
These lies arise from an insufficient understanding of what the Bible actually says about death, money, and the way of salvation.
As with all of Susan’s writing, Follow Your Heart is intended to whet your appetite for the real meal found only in scripture. Truth from the sacred text is embedded within her arguments, and the book incorporates generous spaces for readers to journal their responses.
Jesus presented the only workable formula: Know truth. Be free. (John 8:32)
The truth is our one and only defense against the lies of the culture and the enemy of our souls. Let’s commit ourselves to knowing and living the truth of God’s Word by reading it faithfully and allowing the Spirit of God to apply it to our daily lives.
Holding You in the Light,
In Follow Your Heart and Other Lies, @SusanShipe7 addresses the most prevalent bad advice that the culture is dishing out to the unsuspecting and uninformed.
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Amen!
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Thanks for reading!
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Psalm 42 brings a powerful lesson, repeatedly. We need to preach to ourselves, using Scripture. God’s Word will never lead us astray. He will keep us on the right path. May we take God’s truth and press it deeply into our hearts and minds. Then we will be able to draw from it as needed. More Scripture, more truth in 2026.
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I agree! The only way to counteract lies is to stick close to the Truth!
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Even very well meaning advice from family and friends can be rather bad. I remember my mother in law being very adamant that I should not stay home with my kids and should have a job outside the home since I was bound to get bored staying home. I know she truly had all our best interests at heart but she couldn’t have been more wrong.
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Yes, maybe that’s the most dangerous of all, because we don’t want to offend or make waves. So glad you knew what was right for your family!
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I like how you pointed out that, like the psalmist, sometimes we must talk to our hearts.
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So true! Our minds inform our hearts—provided that we’ve filled our minds with truth!
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