When your heart fears God and desires to keep his commandments, your heart is set upon what is good and right. The writer, in Ecclesiastes 11:9, is not advocating reckless living but Godward living, decisions made overflowing from a heart that fears and follows the Lord. 

Before we look at Ecclesiastes 11:9, let’s get a few things straight first.

Jesus taught that if anyone wanted to follow him, “Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). In our culture that encourages people to follow their hearts and be their authentic selves, Jesus’s words are decidedly countercultural. He speaks of denying self and following him, not esteeming self and following your heart.

One of the dangers of the heart is its self-deceit. In the book of Jeremiah, the Lord says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). A sick heart, one vulnerable to deception, doesn’t sound like the kind of thing we should follow.

In Numbers 15:39–40 the Israelites are told to “remember all the commands of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.”

The book of Proverbs is very concerned about the fool’s commitment to his own understanding and desires. In Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” In 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” And in 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

When we reflect on what Numbers Proverbs, Jeremiah, and Mark teach about the heart, the heart is not a thing to be followed.

Now enter the language of Ecclesiastes 11:9. The writer says, “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes?

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