The Heart of the Matter

UV 1582/10000 The Heart of the Matter
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.


Psalm 45 v 1

We need to be stirred by noble themes that are embedded in scripture. Just as we inspire or breathe in air and derive oxygen from the mixture that is air, we need to inspire or breathe in the breath of God that is in scripture. It will quicken or bring to life our dormant spirit and our dormant gifts. We will be filled from the storehouse of God’s wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Wisdom is that which is related to our choices and decisions in life. Understanding is related to people. Knowledge is related to this world. We will gain a heart of wisdom to recognize the things that are truly important in life to which we need to give our attention and energy. We will understand that of all persons, our relationship with God is the most significant. God will rule over our hearts and our lives as a king. We will give priority as we should to the Kingdom of God and we will enjoy speaking of the things of God. We will become spokespersons or messengers for the Lord in this world.

The spirit of the Lord will instruct our hearts and our hearts will instruct our mouths on how and what we should speak. We should store in our hearts many treasures of wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Naturally, the outflow from our mouths will also reflect what is stored in our hearts. Our words will record what the Lord has placed in our hearts. We will be like a pen that is held in the hand of the Lord to write on the hearts of people the Word of the Lord.

Our hearts and minds should be like spiritual sponges always absorbing the Word and naturally, every time we face some pressure in this world, what oozes out of us will be edifying or spiritually uplifting to those who hear or read what we write. People of this world act in an aberrant manner when they come under stress but the people who are disciplined by the Lord and are engrossed in His Word will maintain their equanimity and use it as opportunities to bring forth good fruit. Almost all the nine fruit of the spirit –love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control are embedded in our thoughts and manifested in some way or other through the mouth and tongue. Many people are quite disciplined in the way they express themselves in writing but are quite the opposite in the way they express themselves orally. As we increasingly meditate and practice the mind of Christ, we will speak the way we write. A writer always first goes to the heart of the matter about which he is writing and then builds up the case around it. Similarly, when we are speaking, we need to go to the heart of the matter and then build around it.

Prateep V Philip