Unshackled Moments ~ July 16, 2018 ~ No Filter, No Problem

Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

- Proverbs 4:23

Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.

- Matthew 15:17-20

A conversation I had recently where someone told how a certain medication turned off their filter and they ended up saying things that they never would have normally got me thinking. We've all had those moments. Those of us who have over indulged in chemicals may have had more frequent and more embarrassing moments, but we've all had them. You know the moments I mean. That time when a rush of anger short-circuited the filter. Or maybe you were just way too stressed and tired. Maybe you only got carried away with a conversation and the next thing you knew that line had been crossed. Maybe it was something silly. Perhaps it was a little embarrassing. Maybe it was mean. I'm talking about that moment when you shocked yourself and had to ask did I really just say that? Maybe you didn't even say it. Maybe it was a thought that made you think, where did that come from? Oh those moments when we do something or say something that is totally out of character for us. Or are they?

Proverbs tells us that everything, thoughts, words and deeds, comes from the heart. We can't fall back on the old stand by of the devil made me do it. Some of us empathize all too well with the line from the Lit song "My Own Worst Enemy."

Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk? I didn't mean to call you that. I can't remember what was said or what you threw at me Please tell me...

But the devil pushed buttons that we have and the chemicals turned off the voice that says this isn't a good idea. Neither created the impulse. While I can say there are things I did high and drunk that I would never do sober, I can't say that they weren't in my heart. Stone cold sober I have said, done and thought things that made me cringe.

We must guard our hearts against those things that defile us. Not because of some legalistic religious rules, but because in order for the garbage to come out of our hearts it must be put in and left. Those things about our nature we don't like, those ugly aspects of our hearts will come out. Period. They have to. They make us sick, and our soul will spew them out like vomit from food poisoning. It's going to come out. The question is how? Will it be removed because we give it tot he One who can take it and cleanse us and replace those things with better life-giving heart stuff like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Or will it come out in a moment of anger, weakness, weariness, etc.?

We can't do anything about what's in our hearts already, but the Spirit can and will if we let Him. What we can do is choose to follow Daddy's advice that we should think on what is lovely and true and of a good report. We can guard our hearts and refuse to indulge in what we would be ashamed to have come spewing from our heart at some future inopportune time. When we let the Spirit cleanse us and control all our lives, even our thought life, we don't have to be afraid of the filter coming off.


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