Inside Out

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14 ESV

The Psalmist makes it clear that this is not an “either or” statement.

The words that come from your mouth are connected to what resides in your heart, or your heart’s meditation.  If a person says nasty things to you, you wouldn’t be led to believe there are kind thoughts in that person’s heart concerning you, right?

Jesus also knew this to be the case.  He called the Pharisees white washed tombs because they looked good on the outside, like a nice grave marker, yet on their inside they were nasty and dirty, much like a rotting body (Matthew 23:27-28). He also brought this up again when talking about food defiling the body.

He let the religious leaders know that it is the heart that defiles a body, or what is already inside, and not the food that comes in (Matthew 15:18-20).

Too often when we are dealing with: gossip, mean thoughts towards others, course language, lust, you name it, we try to just stop ourselves from saying the words or thinking the thoughts.

Instead, we should be getting to the root of the problem, our heart.  It all boils down to the meditation of our heart, which should ever be on Christ.

Memorize this verse this week and use it when the words you speak and the thoughts you think are not pleasing to God.