Do you love God’s Word?
I do! I love that the words are alive and ancient. I love that the Author is the Holy Spirit! He inspired the men who penned His thoughts and words. That same Holy Spirit inspires us today! He is our Teacher and our Comforter!
I have a very busy morning ahead of me! My dear sister and my Aunt Jane are coming to see me. I had hoped to have the house in order and special snacks prepared for them. I mean really, what Southern Hostess would have anything less? But … (you heard that coming didn’t you??) I was up until 11:45 last night snapping green beans that I picked before the sun went down. Last night was action packed (so was yesterday).
I overslept this morning because my husband turned off the alarm — so that ran me behind just a tad.
I stumbled out of my bed and tried to adjust my vision to see. I grabbed my Bible and headed out to my deck just in time to see the sun begin to light the sky over the trees. Ahhhhh. It feels so nice and crisp out this morning! (I am praying God will have mercy on us and keep the 3 digit temperatures that are predicted away …) I turned to the book of Psalms and I ended with this awesome scripture:
Psalm 19:14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Yes! That one scripture says a lot don’t you think?
That is a desire of my heart! To have my words (which are well-aimed arrows) and even my thoughts (that lead my direction) to be PLEASING to the Lord.
What does the Lord say about our words?
Proverbs 18:20-21
From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.
The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Our words have the power to produce life or death. We are filled with the fruit we produce! That is a great reason to be slow to speak isn’t it? There are many more scriptures about our words. We will be held accountable for every idle word we speak (Matthew 12:36-37). God even compares our tongues to a fire — a small member of the body that is difficult to bridle! And if you desire to have a good life, keep your tongue from evil and telling lies (Psalm 34:12-13).
What about the meditation of your heart?
What do you find yourself pondering throughout the day?
Our thought life is POWERFUL! Sin always enters our thoughts FIRST before we ever act on it. That is why the Lord warns us:
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Oh how I wish I had time to expand on this! I have shared in the past on my blog about Ryan Wyatt’s example of what happens with our thoughts. A friend of his had his eyes opened to the spirit-realm by the Lord for a certain number of days. He saw how the thoughts of people produced a scent and a color that either attracted demonic spirits or holy angels. Just so you understand — stinkin’ thinkin’ is REAL. There is a reason we are instructed to capture our thoughts:
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
When I think about the people in my life who have had a lot of hurt and issues — I can honestly say that their thought life has run wild. They rehash old conversations or wounds received over and over again in their minds. Then they speak them over and over again. It is a vicious cycle that all started in their thought life.
Yes Lord … may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You!
Joshua 1:8
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditating on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
We are no longer under the LAW, but we should meditate on God’s Word. It changes us. It corrects us. It should be our moral compass.
Take note of your thought-life today and realize what you are meditating on. (Wow, even the word “thought” and “life” together could be a blog post! Our thoughts have a life of their own. Substance … creativity … action … purpose …) It isn’t easy to capture your thoughts at first, but with God’s help you can do it. He doesn’t call us to do anything that isn’t possible.
God bless you!
Photo: Morning shot of me on the deck with the Lord as the sun shines on my face.
Beautiful !
Beth,
Great words I needed to hear today! Wonderful post! Thank you for sharing.
P.S. the Psalm verse is 14 not 4 – thought you might want to know 😉
Hugs!!
Cat