Talking Hearts

My family is full of “word people”. In the past couple of generations, we’ve produced four preachers, two editors, two broadcasters, some librarians, teachers, and counselors, and at least one poet that I know of – maybe more. Everyone who handles words for a living knows their power, and all of us have been on the receiving end of that power, especially recently. Our culture’s dependence on all forms of media makes us both the masters and the servants of words.

But where do words come from? They are the expressions of ideas, the articulation of thoughts for the purpose of communication among people. You might think that words come from the mind, since that’s where ideas live. But the fact is, and the Bible makes this clear: words ultimately come from the heart, and the problem with our hearts is that they can be really wicked. Sinful. In biblical terms, the heart is the seat of emotion, will, desire, and attitude. God warns the Israelites early on not to hate each other “in your heart”, which confirms that dangerous and evil things – like hate – live in the human heart.

God states in Genesis 8 that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood”. This is not a popular concept in our culture. We are obsessed with the belief that humankind can pursue utopia on our own, so the concept that we are broken from the get-go seems preposterous. Surely children are innocent, pure, truthful, and too young to be contaminated by any kind of evil. If you have children, you know that is false. Babies, while adorable, are eminently selfish. They do not spring from the womb knowing how to share, or how to say “please” and “thank you”. Children have to learn self-control, honesty, generosity, kindness, and perseverance.

They also have to learn how to express these values with their words. These things do not come naturally.

Unfortunately, there are too many adults who have failed to “grow up” in their hearts.

Like the Pharisees. In one of his encounters with the hypocritical religious leaders of the day, Jesus referred to the connection between the heart and the mouth. He called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” asking, “How can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." In other words, the stuff you have going on in your heart – what you want, what you assume, what you believe, what you feel – those are the things that will come out of your mouth, one way or another. When the heart is full of rage, selfishness, envy, and fear, the mouth will be full of angry words, thoughtless remarks, destructive gossip, and lies.

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 15: “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

These days, it seems that most of the filters are off, and everyone runs their mouths – and their keyboards – with thoughtless impunity. You see it everywhere on the news and in social media – the rage, the slander, the twisted morality. We are all bombarded and pressured by words that come from the mouths of people without shame or truth. Every day, we see and hear those heart-evils Jesus condemned: murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lies, and slander. But what about us? How much do we, as Christians, take advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to let down the guard on our words? How often do we repeat something we have heard or read without checking its truthfulness? How often do we let the toxic selfishness of our hearts leak out of our mouths to burn those around us?

As hard as we might try to avoid thinking or speaking any evil, it’s really impossible when the problem is inside us. But God offers a solution in Jesus Christ. We can turn to Jesus, confess our sin, and God promises to give us “a new heart” and “a new spirit”. He will remove our "heart of stone" and give us a "heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). That softer heart is something God uses in us to produce better fruit: words of comfort and truth, bringing life and healing to those around us.

King David was “a man after God’s own heart”, so we can follow his example in praying:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Standing with you,

Carolyn