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For of the abundance of the heart ...

by Pastor Jim Brown
Horizon Christian Fellowship
(www.calvarychapel.com/hcfw)



Jesus told us in Luke 6:45 that for the abundance of the heart, a man speaks. This is a telling sign in our lives as to how well we are allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. So often we will be on the “right track” in our own minds with regards to our walk with the Lord, but if we will listen to our mouths we may change our minds. Many times listening to our speech will encourage us that our fellowship with Jesus is one of intimacy and love, but there may also be times that we find some areas that the Lord still desires to work.

As an example, let’s think about...
- How do we respond in traffic?
- When confronted, do we respond in love without defensiveness?
- When attempting to “come along side” a weaker brother, do we continue persevering or does our speech betray a loss of patience?
- If we don’t get our own way, how do we respond?
- When a confrontation occurs or we are in error, how humble are we? Do we attempt to make excuses or shift the blame?
- Do our words reflect vanity (emptiness)...speech that is unnecessary such as “Oh my God” is vanity if it is not a cry to God.
- When other people are in conflict, does our heart immediately draw us into the role of peace-maker, or do we take sides?
- Does our speech reflect our inner selfishness that God so much wants put on the cross?

These are simple examples, however if we will be honest with ourselves and sincerely seeking the Lord’s guidance, we might find areas of our lives that still need to be yielded to God to allow Him (the author and finisher of our faith) to work. We may find areas of our lives that require us to repent or to go to our neighbor and apologize or ???

God wants to mold us and make us into the image of Jesus Christ but He is a complete gentleman...He won’t work where we won’t allow Him to work. Our walk with the Lord is to be one of relationship similar to the Father-Son relationship...the Father wants us to grow up to be the man/woman that brings HIM glory and that loves HIM with all of their heart! For us to be that person there may be some refinement needed and the first and last step is prayer with the second and all other steps being yielding to His Spirit as we walk in obedience to His Word.

Pray with me that we allow our loving Heavenly Father to “have thine own way” with us, now and throughout our lives...
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Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
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Email me at pj-brown@sbcglobal.net

posted by Pastor Jim @ 8:46 AM