By Gavin Boyle
Kirk Cameron and his son James say the advice to “follow your heart” actually causes more harm than good.
“I think that as I’ve grown in my understanding of human nature and just my own understanding of myself, I think following your heart being the precipice of the thing you should follow is actually not good advice…” James said on his dad’s podcast.
“I think that when it comes to following our heart, what we’re actually doing is following the loudest voice that is present in our situation; it’s either out mind, it’s our heart, it’s our desire, it’s our feelings. And we’re not actually following a thing like a heart, but we’re following a feeling,” he continued. “And so, that feeling could be fear, could be shame, could be feeling unworthy, or it could be ego, or comfort, or attraction. And so when it comes to following a feeling, I don’t think many people would say that’s a good idea.”
Related: Why Kirk Cameron Praises God: ‘Because Of You, I Know What Good Is’
“Back in the day, everybody understood that you had to have mastery over your passions. In other words, you didn’t just do what you felt like doing because your heart told you to do it,” Kirk added. “You know, in my heart I’m angry with you, so go hurt somebody and kill somebody. No. You had to have self-control to master your feelings and your passions, or your feelings and passions will master you.”
It’s important for Christians to understand the dangers of this saying. The Bible directly warns us that the passions of our hearts do not align with God’s will.
“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want,” Paul writes in Galatians 5:17.
For this reason, discipline is one of the most important aspects of the Christian life, despite it being something that the modern world likes to write off. Actor Alan Ritchson previously shared why he believes discipline is crucial for our relationship with the Lord.
“Scripture talks about bodily training. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, ‘For training the body has some value but godliness has value in all things for this life and the life to come.’ So, there’s this call that scripture places on our lives to think about going deeper with our discipline, and I don’t think we focus on that. Like, I don’t think many of us train ourselves like we are getting ready for a race,” Ritchson said in May of 2025.
“Meditating on the word of God brings you to a place where it can equip you and arm you for the complexities of this life where we deal in the gray, the colorful gray between the black and white,” the REACHER actor added. “We can fill ourselves with wisdom that prepares us for that. I invite you to do that. Train your soul and see what it does for your life.”
Thus, while the advice to follow your heart is well intentioned, the truth is that Christians should follow the Lord and understand that the desires of their heart are not steadfast or reliable.
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