Prayer-controlled Speech

 

“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

—Psalm 19:14

Unless you are vastly different than I am, on occasion you probably speak first and think later. That most often happens when we react to something we’ve seen or heard. Before our mind considers what we are about to say, our mouth moves and out comes the words.

This way of speaking does not always honor our membership in God’s Kingdom. In contrast, King David offered these wise words of instruction, as found in Psalm 19:14:

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

We may often hear certain pastors pray this prayer before they deliver their weekly sermons. But, this Scripture does not belong to pastors alone. It is a worthy prayer for all of us.

Whenever we speak, we should seek to honor God and to honor the people to whom and about whom we may be speaking. Frankly, our current society militates strongly against this. In general, secular society has become strident, accusatory, and often downright nasty. Many Christians fall into this same pattern of speech.

When we find something with which we disagree, we often speak out in the harshest terms. Instead of moderating what we say to speak forthrightly, but kindly, we take hold of the same tactics the secular world uses and make them our own.

As we begin another new day, let’s keep in mind that we want our speech to honor Christ and to show kindness to everyone—even people with whom we may have serious disagreement. If we bathe our speech in prayer, we will soon find that our speaking will match that of the God who loves us. As His ambassadors, that is certainly what we want to do.

 

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