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These Words of My Mouth

               May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14)

                There are few prayers that we should pray more often than we do this one. Too often, we seem to think more about what we are about to say than about what God would think of what we’re about to say.  Sadly, that’s part of human nature. To some extent, it is the result of our limitations. We can’t read God’s thoughts, except when He has them recorded for us. He can speak to our minds, our hearts, our souls, and even our bodies, but that is access limited to His choice. If we could read His mind, or the minds of those around us, we might not struggle so with seeing everything solely from our perspective, but as it is, the best we can do, most of the time, is play detective with what others think, including God. That takes a lot of work, and when our own minds, hearts, bodies, and souls are verbose, we can only hear ourselves think. And when our minds are silent, we’re either basking in the peace, or fretfully looking around for the monster that must be hiding somewhere.

                Fortunately, there are some verses that give us an idea of what sort of words and meditations will be pleasing in His sight:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

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. (Philippians 4:8)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44)

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)                

                Learning to do these as a matter of habit will keep us busy. Do you have the courage to prayerfully pick one?

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