Thursday, June 27, 2013
Silver Tongues Backed by Golden Hearts
UV 795/10,000 Silver Tongues Backed by Golden Hearts
The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.
Proverbs 10 v 20
The believer is silver-tongued. What he or she speaks is precious and life-giving. It is compared to choice silver. Scripture says, “ The lips of the righteous feed many.” It feeds the seekers of truth. It feeds the hopeless with hope. It feeds the distressed. It feeds the sick with healing. It feeds the weak with strength from the Word. It feeds the foolish with wisdom from above. It feeds the dying with life. It feeds the directionless and purposeless with a sense of definite direction, purpose and perspective. It makes meaningless life meaningful and the fruitless life fruitful. It feeds the young and the old. It feeds every person according to the need. In order to feed people in this manner, the silver tongue should be backed by a golden heart.
In order for our tongue to be of choice silver, we need to run our words through many filters. We must even sift and sort out the motives behind what we speak or teach. Besides, the silver-tongued must be backed by a heart of gold. The natural condition of the human heart is described by scripture as desperately wicked and deceitful. “Desperately wicked” means eager to say and do something wicked. Scripture says interestingly that the imagination of the human heart is evil from our youth. It does not say from our birth or childhood that our imagination and thoughts are evil but as we get conditioned by the world from the days of our youth, we turn out to be deceived and deceiving. We loose our innocence. We loose control of what we think, feel and speak. Our tongues beat like a tuning fork to match the frenetic rhythm of our hearts. It then takes many chastisements and much suffering in the furnace of afflictions to cure us of our inherent wickedness. Out of the afflictions, our hearts will come out as pure gold.
By storing the Word and obeying the Word over time, our hearts of stone are transformed into hearts of flesh, our wicked hearts into hearts of gold or hearts that have the stamp of approval of the Lord. It is not as if we regain our innocence but we become as shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves. We need to be shrewd as serpents so that we do not get deceived again and gentle as doves so that we do not deceive or harm others. A heart that is so tuned to the Lord is precious to Him and He is ready to move heaven and earth for such a person. The words that roll off such a tongue is like pure melted silver, the compassion and truths treasured in such a heart is like molten gold. It has great purchase with the Lord.
Prateep V Philip
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Thank you dear Prateep. I’ve said it before and I’m happy to say it again. Your consistency of keeping your commitment to spending your morning hours dwelling on His words and sharing your reflection with us every day, is one attribute that really makes the difference.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think it misplaced for me to say that many “fly-by-night evangelists” prop up from time-to-time but, disappear in no time. To date, after you started this mission, it is heartening and inspiring to note that you have invested the rest you gained from 795 nights of sleep to write 795 reflections. Keep it going dear Prateep. Our God needs consistent soldiers like you in His army. I’m glad to be on your mailing list. Today’s refection was especially touching for me.
Bobin John
Thank you - this encouraged me to reflect on the tongue and the heart.
ReplyDeleteJust today, I shared some important news that was factual (someone sacked for integrity reasons) at home but I attached a name to it; the person I shared this with pointed out that this was gossip - i.e. true info, but identifying a person without a good reason. I think gossip is so common in our Indian culture - even in some Christian circles - that we often gossip without realising it. I repented.
James says "If anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless" (James 1.26). Also, we will be called to account for every idle word spoken (written?).
Thank you for reminding us about God's standards for the heart and the tongue. May we be quick to listen and slow to speak.
God bless you!
Michael Fernandes