Your mouth is a window into your heart

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Be gracious, even when others aren’t”

Our Bible verse for today: “A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” Luke 6:45 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You mouth is a window into your heart”

I know a man who most people consider to be very gracious, at least at first. But the more time you spend with him the more you come to realize that his graciousness is actually a bit phony and contrived. He is gracious in a sticky-sweet kind of way. His speech is a little too smooth, his words tend to drip with honey, and his smile is strained and wax-like. Over time you also realize that he has a way of slipping in slightly barbed comments and sly observations that are smooth and silky, and yet which really aren’t very nice. In psychology it’s known as being passive-aggressive.

In Luke 6:45 Jesus taught an important lesson about human nature: whatever is really in your heart will, sooner or later, work its way to the surface and show itself in words and actions. Like the man I described in the first paragraph, you can put on an act and work hard to contain the things in your heart, but sooner or later those things do work their way up and out.

This is why the things politicians say in their unguarded moments are so revealing and important. It’s not the carefully worded and highly nuanced speeches and press releases that matter so much, it’s what pops out of their mouths in unguarded moments that we need to pay attention to. That’s when we get a glimpse into the soul of that person, that’s when we get to see what’s really in his or her heart.

What does this have to do with our theme of graciousness? Just that for your graciousness to be genuine it must be something that has been worked into your heart and into your personality by the Holy Spirit. It must be the real you. It’s the product of spiritual maturity, and spiritual maturity happens as a direct result of practicing spiritual disciplines. The more we pray, study our Bibles, worship, fellowship, and serve others, the more we place ourselves in a position before God whereby the Holy Spirit can bring about real change in our heart.

Left to itself, sooner or later our human nature will always show up in ugly ways. But as Christians we don’t want our words and actions to be natural – we want them to be supernatural, and it’s only the Holy Spirit who can make that happen in us.

Your mouth is a window into your heart. Fully surrender your heart to the Lord and your mouth will be under control.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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