Proverbs 15:28 2/25/2020*

“The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.”

What is the difference between weighing an answer and letting it gush out of your mouth?....

The difference is control…in one instance you are controlling your mouth, in the other your mouth is controlling you….

Our hearts and our mouths are connected…We have all experienced times when we have talked ourselves into a rage. We get on a roll and the more we talk the angrier we become.

That is an example of our mouth gushing wickedness and sweeping our emotions along in the flow.

This verse says that’s evil…

Instead we should think before we speak… weigh our answers…consider well our responses.

That is a difficult instruction - that for most people will require great change.

First you must listen to understand… not to respond. In order to weigh your answer, you need facts…listening is how you find them.

Second it requires humility…If you are already sure you are right, there is no need to listen… you are simply waiting for your opponent to take a breath so you can correct them.

Finally, it takes a desire to find the truth, and the patience to search for it.  Today we want sound bites and instant responses. But a righteous heart pursues truth and has the patience to seek it out.

As a young adult, I would sometimes ask my father complex questions … He would often respond, “let me think about that and get back to you”

He would weigh his answer …. there was a quality required of a response before he would allow it to pass through his lips…and hence his advice was always solid. As those of you who knew him know, you could always count on wisdom and truthfulness in his answers.

What if we did that…. What if we decided that today we would require a higher standard of our responses? What would change if we insisted on weighing our answers before allowing them to gush out of our mouths?

Try it for 24 hours…. It may seem simple – but scripture indicates it will be a life changing adjustment that brings wisdom and righteousness to your walk.

“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”
 – James 3:2