What comes out shows one's heart

​August 16, 2020
Today’s devotion is based on Matthew 15:11, “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.”
Jesus was responding to the Pharisees and the Scribes, who seemed intent on making sure that the outward parts of bodies are clean, but Jesus could quite literally see to the ‘heart’ of their argument. It is one thing to be clean on the outside, but it is a more difficult thing to be clean on the inside.
But the opposite is also true. If our words and thoughts, the matters of the heart, are a reflection of Paul’s words in Philippians 4:8, ‘… if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things!’, then we understand the heart is clean.
Please pray with me the prayer for today:  Heavenly Father, creator, and sustainer of all things, seen and unseen, thank you for the beautiful things of the heart, for pure love for you and others. Guide my thoughts and words as I live so that others may hear good words and glorify Jesus. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.