WHAT DO YOUR WORDS SAY ABOUT YOUR HEART TODAY?
Jesus used the image of a tree and its fruit to teach a valuable lesson about how words reveal the heart. For just as figs aren’t found on thornbushes, so good words don’t emerge from one with an evil heart. So words are the fruit of the heart, revealing the spiritual condition of the one speaking. As Jesus put it, “What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
So, what have you been saying so far today? Have you arisen thankful and prayerful or grumpy and complaining? Have you spoken words of blessing or cursing to those you encounter? Your words are only fruit. If the fruit is bad, look to the heart.
How do we get help for our hearts? We can pray as David did, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psa. 51:10). We can fill our minds with God’s Word every day, so that our heart learns a new vocabulary. And if our words have hurt someone else’s heart, we can be quick to ask for forgiveness and offer them some words of grace from a renewed heart.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we cannot change our own hearts. And our words reveal our heart condition. We know that You have given us new hearts through believing in Jesus, Your Son. Yet, we confess that our old nature still wars to take control of our tongues. Give us clean hearts and words today. Fill our mouths with blessing. Strengthen us to declare the Good News about Jesus. For it’s in His name we pray, amen.