Devotional Tuesday Nov. 15

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

We awake from sleep. What is the first thing on our mind? It could be a vast number of things. "I wish I could stay in bed" or "I wish I had went to bed earlier" Maybe theres a major issue were worried about. Maybe there some serious illness we have or a loved one has that consumes our attention. These things happen. There are so many things going on in all of our lives. Where are our minds focused throughout most of our waking hours? It's so easy to place most of our focus on whatever seems to be the most pressing of all the issues and make that the meditation of our hearts. Meditation isn't necessarily chanting a mantra in a lotus position while burning incense. From a Biblical definition it's basically what we think about and more precisely what we focus on in our thinking. It's what we're dwelling on in our minds.

And then there's the thousands of words that come out of our mouths everyday. What is the content of our conversations? I love to talk about football with other football fans and impress them with how brilliant I am about football when the truth is there is probably more that I don't know about football than what I do know about it. Maybe we talk about the TV shows we watched last night, the issues going on in our relationships or maybe it's about how messed up the government is. Once again there's a vast ocean of topics to discuss. And what about the tone of our conversations? Are we interested in those we are talking to or do we just use them as sounding boards? Are there some words sprinkled into our conversations that we wouldn't be caught dead saying in church? Are we engaging in gossip? Are we complainers? I remember hearing a pastor call complaining the language of the lost. Ouch!

To be a Christian means to be a follower of Christ. So with Christ as our role model we need to find out about what He meditated on and what He talked about and how He talked.

A pretty good clue is found in John 12:49-50
For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

And also again in John 5:19
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

Jesus said nothing and did nothing unless it was from the Father. From the Gospel accounts it's pretty certain that the focus of Jesus was primarily on His Father first and then on people next. As far as the cares and concerns of the world they were at best a distant third. Every word He spoke pleased the Father. Every meditation of His heart pleased the Father. Every act He committed pleased the Father.

The Psalm above compels and challenges us to live in the same manner as Christ did. But the verse also reminds us of Who has redeemed us from the slavery of sin and Who is our strength in order to walk, talk, think and act as Christ did. Don't try this on your own power (don't try this at home boys and girls or someone's gonna get hurt!). You'll end up frustrated and wonder if your even saved at all. We easily forget whose power it is that equips us and enables us to follow Him. It's easy to forget these things when the focus of our minds and the focus of our words aren't on and from Him. It is the Lord's strength and redemption which allows us to follow Him and to let His Spirit flow through us in order to reflect the glory of Christ in word and deed to the world around us.

Holy Father, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you would grant us the ability to focus our minds and the words of our mouths in a manner that would be acceptable and even pleasing to you. Forgive us for when we fail in these endeavors and grant us your grace another day to remind us as often as need be to turn our minds and our mouths over to You. Give us strength in Your redemptive power to reflect Your Son to those we encounter in this world today. In Your Holy name, Amen.