The Meditations of Our Hearts by Brenna Kate

Today, as I was praying, this verse jumped off the
page at me (probably partially because it was
underlined). I had been flipping through the Psalms
and reading portions of it out loud, as a declaration
of God and to God.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and
my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

I thought, How interesting. Often, we think about
what we say and whether or not it pleases or glorifies
God. In fact, most of us have probably quoted the
words of Jesus to ourselves or others, “Men will have
to give account on the day of judgment for every
careless word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12:36) But
how often do we think about what our heart is
meditating on? What does that mean, anyway?

Webster’s Dictionary translates the verb “to meditate”
as “to focus one's thoughts on: reflect on or ponder
over” or “to engage in contemplation or reflection”.
I also wanted to know the original meaning of the
Hebrew word King David used in this Psalm. The word
translated here as “meditation” occurs only 4 times in
the Bible, and this Psalm is the only time that it’s
translated as “meditation”. It is also translated as
“resounding music” or “whispering”.

What is whispering to your heart today? What resounds
in your soul? What echoes and repeats over and over?
What are you allowing your heart to meditate on? Is
it something that would be pleasing and acceptable to
God?

I know that my heart is often filled with hopelessness
and a sense of being worthless. What is your heart
filled with? The desire to be thinner? Or the desire
to be pleasing to God? Are you meditating on the
truths of God, or the lies you’ve come to believe
about yourself? If you tell yourself all day long
that thinner is better, you’ll believe it by the end
of the day. If you let the tape recorder play in your
head, telling you that you’re not good enough, that
you’ll never get better and life will never get
easier, that God must have forgotten about you, you’re
sure to convince yourself of that. But that’s not
what God has to say about you!

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from the will of
your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are
all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more
than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

God cares about you so much (yes, you!) that He even
can tell you at any point in time how many hairs are
on your head. That’s pretty amazing. It also says in
Psalm 56:8 that even our tears are precious to God; He
knows how many we’ve cried and collects them in a
bottle. Are these the types of truths you let your
heart meditate on?

Remember that there’s an enemy of our souls out there
whose only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy.
He’d like nothing better than to convince you that you
are worthless and without hope, without purpose. He
tries to convince you that God heals others but not
you; He loves everyone else and cares about everyone
else’s needs, but not yours. Well, that’s a load of
crap! Satan is a liar; in fact, he is the father of
lies (John 8:44) God only has good things for us:
“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the
LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

So today, pray these words with me, believing that God
can show you how:

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and
my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14



=====
"The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their
troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are
crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:17-18

www.brennakate.com
www.livejournal.com/~brennakate

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