I changed up my daily Bible reading schedule a bit at the opening of the year. Overall it has me reading a few more chapters each day, but the bigger change has been that those chapters are also from a wider selection (not as many chapters in the same book, but a greater number of books each day). One change is that I’m reading from Proverbs every day, and I’m seeing themes come up in other books as well.
This week, I was noticing how many verses in Proverbs deal with words – how the wise use words compared with the fool, the benefit of a timely/good word, the devastating effect of poorly used words, etc. I’ve recently read through James 3, and also Luke 6 (particularly v45), and all of those passages combined are rather enlightening.
Big picture: yes, our tongues are problematic. Yes, they are a world of unrighteousness alight with the fire of hell. Yes, far too often they pour forth folly and perversity and death. But our tongues are symptoms of a far greater problem. If a man speaks out of the abundance of his heart as Luke 6 indicates, then the issue is really our hearts. Our hearts that love other things and worship other things and serve other people (mostly ourselves) rather than the Lord. Our hearts, that though they may be hearts of flesh rather than hearts of stone, are still far too often cold or lukewarm at best to the things of the Lord. Our wayward, wandering hearts are the real issue here.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that a pattern of sinful speech is a definite indication of an unregenerate heart, and I’m not saying that we shouldn’t make any effort to reform or restrain our words. But speech modification, without any heart work, is ultimately a stapling on of paper fruit. And changed hearts that love rightly and worship rightly and serve rightly aren’t a product of human effort, but of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The encouragement in that is if you’ve seen a positive change in your speech habits – if over time, your words have begun speaking life, turning away wrath, healing wounds, and revealing a heart that treasures the things of the Lord more than they once did – you can trust that the Lord, who does not change, will continue that work in you until the day of Jesus Christ. The convicting side of that is that there’s still human responsibility involved. We’re called to take the way of escape from temptation, to resist the devil, not just throw up our hands in defeat, since we can’t do it on our own. The other encouragement is that if you see a need for reform in your words (and I think we probably can all point to something in our speech that needs a remodel), surely a heart that loves the Lord and His ways and a tongue that reflects such a treasure is in line with the Lord’s will, and a prayer for growth in that will surely be answered.
May we, like David, pray, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
I wholeheartedly agree. What comes out of our mouths reflects what our heart is like and that any change in us comes form God, not of our own doing. These last several classes in Deeper Waters has helped me begin to understand the depth of Gods’ love for His children and the continuing reshaping of our hearts and minds. When our hearts reflect the love of Jesus as stated in I Corinthians 13:4-7, the words coming out of our mouths will be acceptable in His sight.