Don’t Say It If You Really Don’t Mean It…
Isaiah 29:12-13 (New International Version)
12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read."13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
People that know me very well, know some things about me that are very evident, right off the bat when they meet me. First, they know that I love God with my whole heart. Secondly, that if I say that I love you I really do. Third, is that if I have it you have it and that is just a sign that I love hard and I am a friend for real. Needless to say, sometimes those attributes are not good. They have a tendency to get my heart broken and disappointed by people a lot more than a little. Well today was one of those days, It had been a minute since I experienced the hurt and pain that lead me to tears, but today, I was privileged to have that kind of pain and disappointment. It spun me right into having a nice size migraine headache. I asked my mother tonight “why do I have to open up and care so deeply,” and then I followed it up with, “I must be doing something wrong.” She said “oh no, you are doing something right.” Tears filled my eyes once again, this time not from the pain that still lingered, but at the thought that a commitment I made to God on Sunday was yielding such attention. That my words and my commitment to press further into God, and pray more had brought out an assault of sorts. But in that moment I had to realize that I had said something I really meant and regardless I was standing in it, by it and through it.
I am a firm believer that people will throw around the words, love, friend, lifetime; I got your back far too often without once thinking about the full weight of their words. We will often say in a heartbeat I will support you, or I love you, or my favorite, I am not going anywhere, and at the first sign of trouble, a test, a misunderstanding, or if things do not go our way or they appear to be something they may not be, we pull up stakes and roll on. For some of us it does not even take that, we can just wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and our tune is changed. The Bible says, that a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born For adversity (Proverbs17:17) it also says that love will cover a multitude of sin (faults) (I Peter 4:8). The Bible encourages us not to make vows we have no intention of keeping (Ecclesiastes 5:5). But the world says, get what you want by any means necessary, make sure you are making yourself happy first and make sure you are taking care of you, because no one can do it better than you. The Bible tells us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) . But for many of us that means telling half the truth or tap dancing around issues so as not to be seen in a certain light. It is very evident that what the world thinks and how it acts is not God’s way or plan. We have a tendency to say so much that we do not mean and we forget that people’s hearts, emotions, spirits, mental status and even souls are at stake. We also forget that we will be held accountable to God first for all that we have said and done in this life. We try to hide so much from people and to make ourselves be okay in our own eyes we forget that the one that has the power to save or condemn is watching our every movement and action, and He hears our every word spoken and vow taken.
It is time to take inventory of how we are living, responding and treating others. It is also time to ask ourselves are we saying things that we are not doing, or fulfilling. We need to be asking before we say I love you, you are my friend, I got your back, I support you, etc., have we counted the cost of what those words should mean to us and what they do mean to the other individual or individuals, that they are spoken to. I have very few really close friends, because I place great value on that, I understand what that level of commitment means. I have many associates, because associates do not require the love and commitment that people in my inner circle require. Ensure that when we speak, that not only do our words speak truth, but that they are acceptable in God’s sight, because He knows the very intent of our hearts any way. Be true, and learn to stand by our word! Mean what we say and say what we mean!
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