SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 18
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook. [Proverbs 18:4]
The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips. [Proverbs 18:7]
You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” [Matthew 12:34-37]
The wise teacher and Jesus both stress the importance of words, and how they bless or curse.
They also point to the inner source from where words come, and how words reveal the heart of the person – a good heart or an evil heart.

What does my casual, daily conversation say about my heart — my idle words?
Do I realize that I am to give an account of all the words I have spoken (or the words I did not speak, when I remained silent when I could have spoken)?
The words are not the ultimate problem, but the overflow of the heart (the deep waters within).
I know that I have spoken careless, hurtful words, and I know where they came from, from the poison well within me, my heart.
This is what I need to confess, what I need to be honest about, and what I want to be free from.

The wise teacher encourages us to think carefully how we think, how we speak, how we listen, how we live.
There’s no room for coasting or being casual here, this is serious.
If I do not seek to put a guard on my lips [Psalm 141:3], if I do not exercise self-control with the help of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-23], I will gush with unhelpful, unholy speech.
I will speak without sincerity; I will make promises I cannot keep; I will react from my emotions, and say things I regret; I will talk like a know-it-all but only reveal my ignorance.
What is the proverb that is not in this book? — “Better to remain silent and have people think that you are a fool, than to speak and to remove all doubt!”
Or another proverb that urges listening or speaking: “God gave us one mouth and two ears, therefore speak half as much as you listen.”

What do my words say about my heart? What am I bringing up from the deep waters within me?

PRAYER:
Lord, I echo the prayer of the psalmist: put a guard on my lips, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing and acceptable to You!