Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

 

Creation proclaiming the Glory of God Psalms 19  V.14: “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer”. David’s prayer in this verse is that his words and thoughts may be pleasing and acceptable to God. This prayer comes from a heart with earnest desire to obey and please God. David was a man after God’s own heart. He, himself, accepts his failure or weaknesses or inability to achieve this goal and seeks God's help. As a child, I remember always hearing this verse prior to Achen or any elder person delivering a message praying this prayer. As children, we had it memorized from the amount of times we heard it but never understood the meaning and depth of this verse. As we get older, we start to realize the true meaning of this verse, the meaning of meditation. Being a Sunday school teacher, youth member or someone with any leadership role in the church community and having the young children and youth look up to you as role models and “Warriors of God”, we need to remember that we must be mindful of the words that come out of our mouths. It says in Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit”. As Christians, we look to be more like God, trying to follow Jesus in every way possible. Luke 6:45 says, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks”.  The words coming out are the products of our thoughts. First we think in our heart. If our thoughts are good then the words coming out of our mouth will also be good. The Bible also says in Matthew 15:11, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them”.  We never want to be in a place where God says our words are not acceptable. The words we speak are very important. Our words have more power than we realize. We need to guard what we say. There is power in our words and in our tongues. We have the ability to lift people up or put them down. Meditation in God’s Word daily causes our hearts to be acceptable to God. The objective of this verse is not our lack of perfection but to avoid doing what is displeasing to God. As humans, we have been created by a God who knows that we are not perfect. Though we are not perfect, we must have a strong desire to live a life that is pleasing to God. Psalms 103:14, “for he knows we are formed, he remembers that we are dust”. Our actions are the fruit of our thoughts. Earnest desire to bring our thoughts pleasing to God will result in words pleasing to Him.  God has done so much for us and He continues to do so. Our greatest example is Jesus’ death on the cross. He has saved us from our sins. We are privileged to live a life giving God all glory, honor and praise through our words, actions and thoughts. Let us remember to pray David’s prayer every day, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer”.

PRAYER Dear Lord, help us to bring all glory, honor and praise to your name with the words that come out of our mouth. May our lives bring praise to you through our words, thoughts and actions. Amen.   Thought for the day Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one. ~ Col 4:6

Sherlyn Varghese  St Thomas MTC, New York