The previous study took a look at the door of the mouth. God takes very seriously the words that come out of our mouths. David was concerned about this and asked God to set a watch before his mouth and to keep the door of his lips. In our own power we cannot control the words of our mouth. We need God’s help. James 3:2 points out, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” There has only been one perfect person who has walked this earth, and His name is Jesus. We need His help with our mouth and heart.
For us to have the power to bridle the tongue, we must start with taking care of the heart. David said, “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.” (Psalm 141:4) Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” We do not want our hearts to think on, to bow to, or to have respect to any evil thing; yet our heart deceives us. Quite often we either have wicked thoughts come into mind or we start to think on wicked things. With so much going on around us right now, it is not difficult to start dwelling on those things we see and hear on a daily basis. For those of us who know the Lord, however, I Corinthians 2:16 assures us that “we have the mind of Christ.” Ephesians 4:23,24 encourages us saying, “23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
The psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 also desired to have a heart inclined to the right things. He prayed, “35) Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. 36) Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. 37) Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” (verses 35-37) To have a renewed mind, we need the Lord to keep us from looking on vain things and to take away our tendency to covetousness. We need the Lord to incline our hearts to His testimonies, that is to turn us toward them and to influence our minds and lives by them.
Luke 6:45 tells us, “…of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” Therefore, if we ask the Lord to help put into our heart right, godly, and holy things, then we will have right things come out of our mouth. We will have thoughts of our heart and words of our mouth that are acceptable to God and graceful and edifying to other people. Proverbs 4:23 instructs us, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Whatever is in the heart comes out in the life, so we need God to help us keep our heart diligently. Then we will be inclined, not to any evil thing, but to God’s word; and we will be in tune to God and will have His leading to walk in the path of His commandments and experience the joy of walking in His way. Our heart will rejoice because we will be able to say with the Psalmist, “My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.” (Psalm 104:34) We need to meditate on God and His word, and then we will have a happy, healthy, holy heart.