I didn’t mean to say...

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” ESV Luke 6:45

A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference called “The power of words and the wonder of God.” You can tell from the title the theme for the three days was, well, words. But more particularly; how we use words. We can use words to build up or to tear down. And ironically, often it is the same mouth that speaks evil, which also proclaims to know and worship God. How can that be?

Paul Tripp preached a sermon on this subject that has stuck in my mind. So I want to share a few things with you that have lingered in my thoughts. By the way, I highly recommend Paul’s writings as well as those of his brother Ted Tripp. They are both top-notch Christian writers and have several titles available through Christian bookstores.

How often have you said something and immediately retracted it by saying, “I didn’t mean to say that” or “what I meant to say was...?” Not being the most sensitive guy in the world, I’ve wished all to often that I could take my words back because of their enormous power to cause problems and inflict pain.

But here’s a dreadful reality. I cannot truthfully say, “I didn’t mean to say that” and neither can you. Speech requires thought and thought springs forth from the treasure we store in our hearts. Paul Tripp said it this way: “Nothing comes out of the mouth...that wasn’t there to start with.” So, if our words have inflicted pain, if we feel remorse and regret for what we’ve said, a more truthful response would be to say:

“Please forgive me for saying what I meant.” Ouch!

Paul went on to point out that word problems are really heart problems. What kind of treasure are we storing in our hearts? The kind of treasure we store up will dictate the kind of words we speak. Do you store the wisdom, attitude, and expectations of the world or do you store up God’s word in your heart?

Sinclair Ferguson, another conference speaker, gave this advice with regards to taming our speech: “The most important aid we have in taming our tongue for God’s glory is to saturate ourselves with God’s word.” I couldn’t agree more.

So, guard your words carefully this week. Make sure your speech reflects the precious treasure of God’s word in your heart and not the evil treasure of the world that is constantly bombarding and influencing you. Make God’s word the abundant and overriding treasure of our heart.

-Ken Askew