Psalm 15:2, “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and *speaks truth in his heart*.”
The content and quality of our internal dialogue matters. What we say within ourselves about ourselves and others and life etc. has genuine impact on the sort of person we are in the sight of God, and therefore, in reality.
Do I speak truth to myself, about myself, about others, about life, or do I speak falsehoods? Well, what is truth? Ultimately, we know that Christ Himself is the Truth (John 14:6), so another way to formulate this question is: do I speak in accordance with the identity of Christ—in accordance with Gospel-formed Love—or in accordance with some other standard? If Christ, crucified and raised as atonement for sin, reconciliation with God, and final revelation of the Father is a note struck on the strings of reality, does my internal speech resonate with and harmonize to this note, or is it dissonant with it?
Consider how much speech takes place “in [our] heart” each day! How much we say to ourselves, about ourselves, about our situations, about our past or present or future, about those around us, about our hopes and longings, about our fears and anxieties, about our rationales and pursuits, etc. etc….How much speech there is going on inside of us! And what a necessary challenge it is to ask ourselves: “Is what I am saying truth? Is this line of thought in accordance with what God has done and who God is in Jesus? Is this speech truly applying, truly trusting, truly believing Christ—who IS the Truth—in the midst of this hardship, this sickness, this difficult relationship, this frightening future? Or is it speech that acts as though Christ is not the ground, goal, and definition of all things? Is it speech that—like gasoline on a fire—fuels envy, self-pity, fear, faithlessness, anger, etc…?”
May God give us grace this day to “speak truth” in our hearts.
