Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “A wise heart instructs its mouth and increases learning with its speech. Pleasant words are a honeycomb: sweet to the taste and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:23-24 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “What comes out of your mouth reveals what is in your heart.”
In Proverbs 16:23 Solomon tells us that a wise heart will instruct its mouth. In other words, the heart controls what the mouth speaks. That’s true in more ways than one.
First we need to remember that when the Bible speaks of “the heart” it is not talking about the physical organ that pumps blood through the body. “Heart” is a metaphor that refers to the center of a person’s inner and personal life. It’s the place where thoughts, emotions, imagination, wisdom, and conscience all come together to form the person we truly are.
One of the most revealing and helpful truths about the human heart was given to us by Jesus in Luke 6:45 when He said, “A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.”
In the NIV that verse reads, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” What Jesus means is that whatever you have in your heart, sooner or later it will work its way to the surface and come out of your mouth. Many people have all sorts of evil stored-up in their heart. They try to keep it bottled-up and hidden, and they usually can, for a while. But if your heart is filled with profanity, pornography, anger, bitterness, envy, or greed, no matter how hard you try to keep those things bottled-up and hidden from view, sooner or later, in an unguarded moment, they will pop out. Everyone can fake-it for a little while, but sooner or later what’s really in your heart will come out of your mouth.
That brings us back to Solomon’s point about the heart instructing the mouth. The heart controls the mouth. Therefore what comes out of the mouth is being driven by the heart – good or bad. The heart can instruct the mouth by teaching or training it. Even if a person has a heart that’s filled with ugly things, if the person wants to change that, they can begin to flood the heart with good and righteous influences. Then over time the evil things will be flushed out. In the meantime the heart can exercise control over the mouth and train it to speak only that which is good and righteous.
Solomon also said in those verses that a wise heart speaks words that increase learning, are pleasant to hear, and which are healthy and helpful. Such things come from the good storeroom Jesus was referring to.
So, if you want to know what’s really in a person’s heart, listen closely to what’s coming out of their mouth.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 