I have something my family calls my "driving word". Although I have not used it for many many years... my children still remember it...
This off-color word only came out when I was driving. It welled up from inside me and spewing out of my mouth when someone would be passing me on a double yellow line... or when an insane driver would cut me off... or when a driver was just being plain crazy!
One day when my two little ones were safely strapped into their car seats and we were happily singing along to WE SING SILLY SONGS a car turned right in front of our's and I almost hit it! It was a very close call and I was quite shaken! From the back seat a wee sweet voice yelled out my "driving word" for me!
I was heartsick! What a lesson straight from the mouth of a babe... my babe!
... for the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart.
Luke 6:45
My problem was not other drivers... my problem was me. And my problem was not my mouth... it was my heart.
Jesus told us that what we say comes from the condition of our heart. The word heart in Greek is CARDIA. It carries the idea of our mind, emotion, intellect and will. What we say is what we think and feel and know and want to say.
What we say gives us a very good look into the depths of our heart! And what others say shows us what is in the depth of their hearts too!
This is a very interesting and telling perspective. When we are aware enough to listen to what we say, we can see the condition of our very heart!
Our hearts and lips work in tandem. They are a team! Our lips give voice to our inner thoughts.
I don't say my "driving word" anymore... but here's the thing... if I'm not careful I sometimes think it. I no longer give voice to it, but left unchecked I can still find that word in my heart! This saddens me greatly!
It's like part of my heart is still untamed and sick. That's how hearts are!
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
Our heart... our mind, emotions, intellect and will... is habitually dishonest and misleading. It's continual cry is to have it's own way. Often the cry of our cheating hearts builds up and makes us so uncomfortable that the pressure of our heart is released in the words we say! I call that word vomit. It's a graphic word picture of our sick hearts!
Even if we are children of God... our hearts remain a constant problem. We must be aware of that.
The good news is that as we walk closer to and longer with Jesus and fill our thoughts and intellect and feelings with His ways and His thoughts our will starts to be His. The fight to keep our heart and lips in check will always be there... but it does get easier! HOWEVER, we must always watch the condition of our hearts.
Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the spring of life.
Proverb 4:23
In other words we must watch what we put into our minds, what we feed our intellect, what emotions we give licence too, and the reign of our will over our life. This is a constant and close watch! Because it will... I repeat... WILL determine the course of our life!
When my "driving word" creeps up from that dark hidden depth of my heart I need to render it powerless once again! Acknowledging that my "driving word" is wrong and willful and then submitting to what God would have me do. That usually looks like blessing a crazy driver... and asking God to show Himself big in the drivers life.
And when my heart realigns with God's heart the benefit is peace and joy!
The condition of our heart and mouth is for us to choose!
Our heart can fill the course of our life and those around us with ugliness, strife, baseness, defilement, deception and hurt... or we can choose to give our hearts and lips over to the the Lord and then earnestly guard them. The outcome will be life changing.
I choose grace, joy, comfort, gentleness, truth, blessings, peace and all the wonderful blessing that come from a heart that abides IN HIM!
How about you?
0 comments:
Post a Comment