Acceptable or Not Acceptable?
One of the things we teach our children is that there are things that are acceptable and things that are not acceptable. Of course, it is not acceptable to talk back to adults. It is not acceptable to lie to us or to try to deceive us in any way. What is acceptable is for them is to speak respectfully and to tell the truth. I wonder how many of us who are God's children think of what is acceptable to God? We should think of that, because He is our Father, and we should want to please Him in all we do. David had a good concept of this. (Psalm 19:14) It was his prayer that the words of his mouth would be acceptable to the Lord. However, he went farther than that. He also prayed that the meditation of his heart would be acceptable to God, too. This was important to him since God was His Rock and His Redeemer. I think we can benefit by saying this same prayer ourselves.
Let's consider all of the words we say each day. I pray we realize that every single word is important to the Lord, as well as, to the people with whom we speak. God is listening, and He is keeping track of all of our words. He is judging whether they are acceptable or not. I believe He considers not just our words, but the tone of voice and our attitude in saying them. That is why we need to pray for God to show us how to communicate in an acceptable way with every word we say to Him and to others. Then, let's add to our prayer that the meditation of our heart be acceptable to God, also. In other words, we need to only think about things that are acceptable to God. That takes it a step further, but it is an important step. What we think about molds us into who we are, and what is in our heart comes out of our mouth. Therefore, if we have a bad attitude in what we are thinking, that attitude will come out in words and actions. If we think on sinful things, we will end up acting on them. When we do these unacceptable things, we bring shame on our Rock and on our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. See what I mean? David was right, and we need to be careful in what we say and what we think so it will be acceptable to God.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 22-24.