Two Hearts And A Firey Tongue
We all speak from that which fills our hearts; and often, our hearts are not pure. It is easy to hurt one another with our words and we need to be mindful of what we say. Our words are capable of setting the whole world on fire. However, being mindful of our words does not cure the root problem, the sin nurtured within our own mind. Yet, some Christians cling to the notion that by their own mindfulness of words they can keep themselves from sinning by them. They learn to speak in opposition to how they feel and even teach their children to do the same. They speak words of love and devotion to God while in their hearts, they nurture vile hatred and even murder. By their own effort, they have given up on the sin of speaking evil and traded a wicked tongue for a double heart.
I have been a victim of double hearts. Too often, I have thought myself to be loved but later it was revealed that I was hated instead. How love sours when it is found to be pretense. That sour sickness is magnified many times when the love named as pretense is named as the love of God. It is enough to cause us to lose faith if that faith were dependent on us; but thanks be to God, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even a doubled hearted Christian.
I am an open hearted person and often expression of that openness is in blunt truth. I never even think to say anything other than what I am thinking and even though it is truth, as I perceive it, my truth is not pure and my words cause damage. I am guilty of setting the world on fire with my tongue. I can choose not to speak but I am not capable of suppressing what is true and saying something else. I am helpless to this sin, apart from Jesus.
On the other hand, I know brothers and sisters who have spoken and acted in opposition to their true thoughts and feelings for so long that they truly can't express anything that comes from the core of themselves. They are the only ones who know the truth of their inner life. They exist within themselves until something from outside comes crashing in and their true thoughts and feelings are momentarily uncovered. Then the inner person emerges in contempt and self-defense, all of the 'wrong' feelings hidden behind an angelic smile rise with dank rancor. This person too is helpless to the sin they are predisposed to, apart from Jesus.
The natural response for each offender is to caste their shame upon the other and seek self-justification. The one lives by their own words justified as truth, while the other prides themselves on speaking words that cause no pain. To do so is to exalt that which is vile in the eyes of the Lord, making way for wickedness to abound on all sides.
The only hope for any sinner is Jesus and never in any of our words, whether they be blunt in truthfulness or sugary sweet and false. From our hearts we speak and the cure for every kind of sinner is a pure heart. Only Jesus can purify a heart and when His Words are spoken through that purified heart, all who are given ears to hear are blessed, nurtured, and healed.
May God make us mindful of our words and not of our words only, but also mindful of our hearts. May we be blunt and open toward God, hiding no ugly thought or feeling; but instead, surrendering them to Him to be purified as our hearts are also purified from sin.
Dearest Jesus, keep us humble before you and make us pure in God's eyes. Cause our tongues to speak not words of our own crafting or words of our own emotion but pure Words, the very Words of Life. Amen.
I have been a victim of double hearts. Too often, I have thought myself to be loved but later it was revealed that I was hated instead. How love sours when it is found to be pretense. That sour sickness is magnified many times when the love named as pretense is named as the love of God. It is enough to cause us to lose faith if that faith were dependent on us; but thanks be to God, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even a doubled hearted Christian.
Psalm 12:1-8 Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor. With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; Who is lord over us?
"For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he yearns."
The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
I am an open hearted person and often expression of that openness is in blunt truth. I never even think to say anything other than what I am thinking and even though it is truth, as I perceive it, my truth is not pure and my words cause damage. I am guilty of setting the world on fire with my tongue. I can choose not to speak but I am not capable of suppressing what is true and saying something else. I am helpless to this sin, apart from Jesus.
On the other hand, I know brothers and sisters who have spoken and acted in opposition to their true thoughts and feelings for so long that they truly can't express anything that comes from the core of themselves. They are the only ones who know the truth of their inner life. They exist within themselves until something from outside comes crashing in and their true thoughts and feelings are momentarily uncovered. Then the inner person emerges in contempt and self-defense, all of the 'wrong' feelings hidden behind an angelic smile rise with dank rancor. This person too is helpless to the sin they are predisposed to, apart from Jesus.
The natural response for each offender is to caste their shame upon the other and seek self-justification. The one lives by their own words justified as truth, while the other prides themselves on speaking words that cause no pain. To do so is to exalt that which is vile in the eyes of the Lord, making way for wickedness to abound on all sides.
The only hope for any sinner is Jesus and never in any of our words, whether they be blunt in truthfulness or sugary sweet and false. From our hearts we speak and the cure for every kind of sinner is a pure heart. Only Jesus can purify a heart and when His Words are spoken through that purified heart, all who are given ears to hear are blessed, nurtured, and healed.
May God make us mindful of our words and not of our words only, but also mindful of our hearts. May we be blunt and open toward God, hiding no ugly thought or feeling; but instead, surrendering them to Him to be purified as our hearts are also purified from sin.
Dearest Jesus, keep us humble before you and make us pure in God's eyes. Cause our tongues to speak not words of our own crafting or words of our own emotion but pure Words, the very Words of Life. Amen.
2 Comments:
I always shudder when I hear the hymn, "O for a thousand tongues to sing thy praise!" when such different things are said with the same tongue ...
Sounds like you've been reflecting on words a lot lately. The passage you quoted from the Psalms really says a lot about words ... how both the righteous and the unrighteous use them ...
"How love sours when it is found to be pretense."
Too true! The attraction may not sour, but the genuine part does ...
I don't think there is anything worse than to find out a relationship you trust in is false. I wonder about people who continually manipulate to get what they want. I wonder if they are really happy when they trick someone into caring for them when they really care nothing about that person but only desire their admiration.
We are not all the same.
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