Here is a good morning prayer, or evening prayer, or a prayer for whenever you are going to be with other people, or animals, or inanimate objects of any kind:
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
That exclamation point was David's, not mine, although I second that motion. How I need the Lord to guard my lips, and remind me to speak only what is edifying and encouraging and truthful and loving. This is hard for someone who loves to talk. Daily I need His watchfulness to remind me.
And more importantly, I need to saturate myself with His Word, so even my thinking is edifying and truthful and loving. "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart", according to Jesus as quoted in Matthew 12:34. Long minutes in His Word, soaking it in, meditating on it, absorbing it into my heart and mind, is the first step to speaking rightly. What fills my heart will fill my mouth. Oh Lord, set a watch!
I have found myself alone recently, the birdies having all flown the nest. A little time for self-reflection and prayer and painting a little bird I found at the thrift store and re-covering dining chairs. And catching a nasty cold, so it's not all Edenic.
I've also been meditating on the truths found in 2 Corinthians 5:17, that greatest of all exchanges: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of Christ. Christ endured the suffering owed to us for us! This is unimaginable love, is it not? Unequaled love, the like of which we will never see on this earth, no matter how great the sacrifice. This is the Lord of glory come down to redeem wicked sinners who wanted nothing to do with Him.
John Murray, in his Redemption Applied and Accomplished (1955 Wm Eerdman Publishing), describes it like this: "Here we are the spectators of a wonder the praise and glory of which eternity will not exhaust. It is the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, the God-man, drinking the cup given him by the eternal Father, the cup of woe and of indescribable agony. . . . It is God in our nature forsaken of God. . . . There is no reproduction or parallel in the experience of archangels or of the greatest saints. The faintest parallel would crush the holiest of men and the mightiest of the angelic host." (pp. 77-78)
And in light of this truth, Romans 8:35 asks us this: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Read on to find the answer. It is no one. God the Father, the Lawgiver, the Just, accepted, yea even planned, the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, and there is now no condemnation for us if we are in Him.
This day, thank Him. Give yourself to Him in new ways. Serve Him as your only King. Live a life of praise to Him for His marvelous love.
