The Heart-Mind-Tongue Combination

UV 4224/10000 The Heart-Mind-Tongue Combination But in your hearts set Christ apart (as holy-acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives) as Lord. Always be ready to give a (logical) defence to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance (elicited by faith) that is within you, yet (do it) with gentleness and respect. I Peter 3 v 15 We need to set our hearts apart for Christ for as someone rightly said, “The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.” We reserve the “holy of holies” in our inner temple as a sanctified place for Christ Jesus. He is the One anointed to save us and therefore, we will do well to give Him first place in our hearts and lives. Seek first Christ every day and the kingdom of God is at hand and all the blessings promised in the beatitudes are fulfilled and guaranteed in Him for each of us. When we live like this, we will be able to defend our faith to anyone without even uttering a word. They will see us and sense the inner power and the grace of the Almighty upon our lives. The foremost task for our tongues is to explain clearly and with conviction, yet with courtesy, gentleness and all respect to people who have doubts about God. We need to curb or limit the other uses of the tongue such as to retaliate with insults when we are insulted, to argue, to be sarcastic, to be boastful or deceitful. Next to a sanctified heart is the sanctified tongue that is dedicated to serve the Lord. The highest, noblest and best use of the human tongue is to serve God with it. To connect the tongue to a sanctified mind is a powerful combination. We need to saturate our minds with the word of God. It will enable us to provide answers to the perplexing questions we ourselves have as well as those of others. We will be able to justify the hope we have of salvation in Christ with adequate and substantiating reasons. We should however avoid getting into controversies, quarrels, arguments over our beliefs but always speak with a gentle and persuasive manner not to win the argument but to win the person.