Window to Your Heart
By Erik Farstad
November 10, 1997
"...For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34b
When you speak, talk or share your time with others, what are they hearing you say? What is your motivation for the conversations you have with others? Do you spend more time engaging about your own life or do you show interest in other people’s lives first? Have you ever spent even a moment thinking about where your words come from? Do you like what you hear yourself saying?
To understand what we say, we need to look to where are words come from. Our heart! If you have a medical heart condition, you can’t just speak kind words and then your heart gets better. You have the go to the source to fix the problem. Your heart would need some kind of operation or medication to get better. Well, spiritually your heart needs the operation and/or medication of the Holy Spirit to operate properly. You must allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with the attitudes and motivation of Christ. How is this done? By seeking Him daily, asking Him to fill you full of His ways. For if you do not seek His ways, your heart will only be filled with what you place there. Don’t you think God knows what belongs in your heart better than you do?
Imagine your heart as a container, for that is what it is essentially. It can contain many things: love, hate, bitterness, happiness, joy, disgust, the list can go on and on. There is a direct line from your heart to your mouth. This direct line carries the ‘overflow’ or ‘abundance’ of your heart. Think of a cup. You can only fill it so far and then the cup overflows due to it’s contents being so abundant. "Let my cup overfloweth..." So either your heart can overflow with His ways, which are intended to bring about His glory, or your ways which may bring about nothing or worse!
What do your friends say? Like begets like. Your friends and acquaintances can have an influence on your words and actions too. Do you leave when the language gets bad? Words, situations and actions can pour into your heart through your eyes and your ears. Do you know when to shut them down when the garbage tries to pour in? Protect your heart, don’t let it get filthy by the world around you!
Your words, actions or statements will show to all those around you the state of your heart, while also reflecting your beliefs, convictions and ideals. Further, you have the power to build up or destroy at a single spoken word. So the question is, "What do you want to ‘overflow’ to those around you?"
Let this be your prayer today:
Dear Lord, I acknowledge that my words are a window into my heart. I desire the abundance in my heart to be your love, your desire to serve and your passion for the lost. Convict me of all that which is in my heart that is in need of cleansing. I come to you today, seeking you to fill my cup (heart) until it overfloweth with you and you alone! But before you do, I choose faithfully today to empty myself and my heart so that all that resides in my heart is Christ! In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
The window to your heart is clear. What are others’ seeing when they peer in?
In Him, "E"