Think On These Things Thursday

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Be Careful What You Say,

Your Words Tell Everyone What's Really in Your Heart!

In Sunday School as a kid, we sang the song: Oh, be careful little tongue what you say...For the Father up above is looking down in love. Oh, be careful little tongue what you say. The next verse could be Oh, be careful little tongue what you say...For the words that you say show what's really in your heart, etc.

It is easy to get angry or frustrated and say things that we regret later. Jesus realized this and said in Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. I am not always careful what I say and there have been times that I have said things that later I wondered why I said them or where they came from. The answer: My heart. We need to make sure that we are guarding our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. It is easy to let opposite of the things listed in Philippians 4:8 creap into our hearts. Things like discontentment, unhappiness (Being happy is a choice), worry, fear, gossip, dishonesty, feelings of unfairness, etc. dirty our hearts and pretty soon these are the things that will be coming our of our mouths. If we allow these things in our hearts, we should not be surprised when they come out of our mouths.

(Notice--God said to keep our hearts with all dilligence, this not an easy job and must be done ALL the time.) Think of yourself as a soldier on guard marching back and forth in front of your heart to make sure nothing bad is entering in. Satan and the world will throw many darts at it, we need to make sure we have our shields (God's Word) to deflect the arrows!

Some ways to keep thy heart:

1. Read your Bible and pray every day.
2. Pray for those who make your life difficult. Ask God to help you to see the good in them, not the bad. (We so often focus on the bad in others and dismiss the good we see as a fluke.)
3. Capture any thoughts that do not fall in line with Phillipians 4:8 IMMEDIATELY. Do not dwell on them. Replane the thought with one that does fall into the list in Phil. 4:8.
4. Be careful who/what you are listening to. This seeps into your heart also.
5. Memorize verses that you can use to guard your heart from evil thoughts.
6. Remember that one unkind, wrong response can destroy our reputations and testimony. You can apologize for what you say, but you can not erase the memory of what you said. This is why we need to guard our hearts. So often we just try to guard our tongues and forget about our hearts. If we try to guard our tongue only and allow our hearts to be filled with bad, eventually that is what will come out of our mouth.
7. If you say something unkind, realize you have some housekeeping in you heart to do! It wasn't a "slip of the tongue" but a dirty heart!