March 10, 2003

"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

There are those who get real touchy whenever we talk about the words of our mouth.  If they hear a message on the power of their own words and how it affects their lives they will argue their position that it doesn’t matter what they say, things are just going to happen the way they are anyway.

What these people are failing to realize is that God is trying to bless them.  He is trying to give them His best.  They need a revelation of God’s great love for them, and in response to His love open their hearts to His truths.  Our obedience to God in the area of our words, or any area, needs to be in response to His love for us.  If for no other reason then let it be that we want our words to be acceptable in the sight of God because we want to please Him.

So how do we please the Lord with our words?  We see from the Old Testament how much it displeased the Lord when the Israelites murmured and complained after leaving Egypt (Numbers 11:1).  Our desire to speak words that please the Lord means then that our words will not include murmuring and complaining.  Of course, the ‘meditation of our heart’ has to be acceptable to Him as well.  The thoughts of our heart have to be right in order to speak words that please the Lord because Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34).

The Lord was not only displeased with the Israelites murmuring and complaining but also with their words of fear and unbelief (Numbers 14:11-12).  So for our words to please the Lord they also need to be free from fear and unbelief just as much as they need to be free from complaining.  In fact the Lord grouped together the times they murmured and complained along with when they did not believe and called it tempting Him (Numbers 14:22).

The Lord doesn’t want us to just quit complaining and suffer in the wilderness for the rest of our lives.  Just ‘grin and bear it’ and you’ll make it through.  No, He wants us to not just quit complaining but to go on and speak words of faith and hope that will bring us out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

Can we pray, as David did, ‘Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight?'  Are we really willing to lay aside the words that displease Him?  Do we know what words displease Him?  Are we willing to believe Him and speak those words that please Him?  Do we know what words please Him?  Make a decision to day to speak only words that please our Heavenly Father.