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
I find this interesting, and very indicative of the nature of God's heart. David is not writing about anything we DO in this Psalm; he's writing about our words and what our hearts ponder.
>> Silent thoughts and mere words. Evidently, they matter a lot.
And those two things are incredibly intertwined, too, according to Jesus... "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).
So then it's fair to say when the words of my mouth aren't glorying to God - from the little curse words that fly out in a moment of frustration to the words used to harshly deface someone' character - it's a heart issue. My heart issue.
My words flow from my heart >> The meditation of my heart tends to be rooted in my thought life >> My thought life is driven by my perspective >> My perspective is determined by what I allow my heart to regard as the higher truth.
If I don't view life through the lens of the Gospel, my perspective is skewed. Therefore, the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart will simply not be acceptable in God's sight.
Ok, but who cares if I'm found acceptable in God's sight? Maybe that question floated through your mind as you read.
Well... we ALL probably should. According to what Paul wrote in Romans 12:1, it's our reasonable response to what Christ did through the cross to present ourselves as living and holy sacrifices, "acceptable to God."
This was a challenge to my heart tonight. Sometimes we slip into thinking that because certain things don't surface in our public behavior they aren't really an issue; that God's not necessarily looking too hard at it.
"I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You." - Psalm 119:11
Notice the Psalmist didn't say, "I serve at church in all my free time that I might not sin against You" or "I always raise my hands in worship that I might not sin against You" or "I give generously to my church that I might sin against You." No, he basically said that he's made the Word of God the meditation of his heart.
God's listening to the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts just as much as He sees what we do. We do ourselves a disservice by letting the "little things" go unaddressed in our hearts. Yes, grace, but also, yes, respond to conviction.
Long story short...Check your heart. Watch your words.
~ Alyssa