Out of the heart
I will study the way that is blameless.
When shall I attain it? Psalm 101:2
Read Matthew 15:10—20
The point is to attend to my heart. The place to start would really be — no better place — a time like this, which I have set aside to be a time for prayer. I have set this time to be consciously aware of the presence of the Lord, and of my transparency to him. This is no hiding place. Not from the Lord. If my heart is really set, passionately, without some secret ploy to withdraw again, but set without reserve on the Lord, something will result from that. It will be almost a relief. With that kind of heart I won’t have to be constantly guarding my lips. What will slip from them will build and bless. My lips will, generally, tend to praise and encourage, to strengthen and comfort those around me. They will do that because they will reflect what is within. Eulogy, good speech, will be the fruit of it when my lips speak from a heart set on the Lord.
Purify my heart, Lord. Fill my heart with your Spirit. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught me all else to me. Save that thou art. Thou my best thought. By day. By night. In this, my prayer time. When I go from this quiet place, when I speak, when I chatter, when I react to what is said to me, to the insult and the maddening jibe. Let me speak from your heart within me.