![]() This is a man whose words reveal that he has an unselfish heart. He’s asking about your background and your friends and your life. I’ve talked with him a handful of times over the years, and I said about this man who is the head of a ministry, one of the things I so appreciate about this man is that whenever you see him, he’s not telling you how he’s doing or how his ministry is doing. I’m thinking of one Christian leader I know I saw him just recently, and I made the comment after I left him. They’re not always talking about themselves. So ask questions that draw them out.”Īs you think about the people you know who have a lot of friends, people that others want to be around, one of the things you’ll notice is that they talk about others. He said, “People want to talk about themselves. I can remember my dad telling us as we were growing up that one of the important things in conversation is not to talk about yourself. A heart that is selfish is going to talk about what? Self. Complaining words come out of a discontented heart. Impatient words come out of an impatient heart. If I speak profane words, what does that tell you about my heart? It’s profane. And when I speak angry words, what does that tell you about my heart? It means I’ve got an angry heart. A self-centered heart is going to speak selfish words. If I have an unloving heart, I’m going to speak unkind words. If I have a proud heart, I’m going to speak arrogant words. If I have a mean-spirited heart, what kinds of words are going to come out of my mouth? Mean words, unkind words. So if I have a critical heart, what kinds of words are going to come out? Critical words. Hundreds of years ago Francis DeSalles said this: “Our words are a faithful index of the state of our souls.” So, you want to know what’s in your heart? Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If I have a wicked heart, the words that come out of my mouth are going to be wicked words. So if I’m a foolish person, I’m going to speak foolish words. But they reveal what is not so evident until I speak the words, and that is the condition of my heart. That’s what’s heard that’s what’s evident. The words that I speak are a mirror into my heart. What’s the connection there? The tongue reveals the condition of my heart. Then there are other places where you read about the mouth or the tongue or the lips of the righteous, or the words of the pure or the tongue or the lips of the wise. In fact, as you go through the book of Proverbs-and I’m encouraging you to do your own study I’m hoping just to whet your appetite for your own study on the book of Proverbs and its many references to the tongue-you’ll find that there are many places where we read about the mouth or the words of the wicked, or the mouth of the foolish. Why? Because there’s a connection between what we say and what’s in our hearts. Proverbs 15:7: “The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish”-why doesn’t it say “the mouth of the foolish”?-“does not do so.” The contrast is between the lips of the wise and the heart of the foolish. ![]() The contrast, for example, in chapter 10, verse 20: “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is worth little.” The tongue is connected to the heart. The connection is made over and over again. In fact, I counted eleven verses-there may be more than that-where the word heart is in the same verse with the word lips or tongue or mouth. ![]() One of the themes that comes through many times in the book of Proverbs is the connection of our words to our heart. The problem is that out of the same mouth often come the kinds of words that heal and the kind of words that destroy and wound, which is why we need the Spirit of God to fill our hearts with His Word and His ways so that the words we speak will not be the foolish or the wounding or the deadly words. Now, if we were just all the time speaking one of those sorts of words, it would be easy to figure it out. ![]() “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We’ve seen that our words have power to wound and destroy or to heal and to build up. Nancy: The verse we’ve been meditating on and I’ve encouraged you to put in different places around your home is Proverbs 18:21. We’re returning to a series Nancy began yesterday called, "The Power of Words." Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of True Woman 101, for Wednesday, June 21, 2017. When I speak angry words, what does that tell you about my heart? It means I’ve got an angry heart. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: So if I have a critical heart, what kinds of words are going to come out? Critical words. Leslie Basham: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reminds you. ![]()
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