The Words of My Mouth
October 25, 2024 by Gina Stinson
Filed under Daily Devotions, Worship
By Gina Stinson
Praise, compliments, encouragement, lies, yelling, gossip, exaggeration, truth—all kinds of words that can come out of our mouths. It’s easy to see why we would need to join the Psalmist prayer for acceptable words to the Lord! The Bible warns us in the book of James about the daunting task of keeping our mouths under control. The job was tough then, and it’s tough now.
The verse is Psalms outlines the process pretty carefully. First, it talks about our physical and spiritual make-up—that battle between the flesh and the spirit—the tongue and the heart. There are so many times when the things we think about slip off our tongue with no thought. A word spoken in anger, gossip or a lie. There is almost always an aspect of regret or guilt after the words are spoken; and the heart plus the spoken word do not equal “acceptable in God’s sight.”
Other times, when we have really given thought before speaking and our hearts have been submitted to God, the words of our mouths plus the meditations of our hearts DO equal “acceptable in God’s sight.” Those words might come in the form of truth, encouragement, praise or thanksgiving.
The end phrase is especially important: “Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” It’s only through Christ’s strength that we are able to control what we say. It’s when we realize all that we have been redeemed from that we can meditate on the truth of God’s Word, His attributes and His Being, and be changed to focus on those pure, lovely, true and good reports. It’s then that our speech will be changed to match the acceptable message of Christ.
It’s a big task; with His strength we can do it!
PRAYER: Father, I need Your strength to speak words that glorify and honor You. Help me think before I speak. Let the meditations of my heart be focused on things that with please You.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer,” Psalm 19:14 KJV.
Today’s devotion is by Gina Stinson, wife to Bruce, mom to Savannah and Tucker and publicist assistant for Kathy Carlton Willis Communications. In her spare time you can find her blogging, gardening and working in her community and church. Check out her blog http://journalinggina.blogspot.com
