Have you ever experienced a time where you recognized that God was trying to get your attention – to help you hear what He was saying? This morning was one of those times.
This morning the quote in my journal was “Here I am Lord: here again because I need you.”
I began my reading with Psalm 120. “Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.” (vs. 2) One might logically think the psalmist was writing about the lying lips and deceitful tongue of others. But what if the lying lips and deceitful tongue from which I need to be delivered belong to me? What if I am the one from whom I need to be delivered?
The psalm ends with these words: “I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” (vs. 7) Am I for peace? I say I am for peace, but I wonder if I am lying to myself? Am I for peace as long as peace comes on my terms? Am I for peace as long as others conform to my way of thinking? Is this a place where my own tongue is deceitful, where my lips are lying…to myself?
As I pondered these thoughts, and wondered how I am to know, I moved to Psalm 121. “I lift my eyes up to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (vs 1-2) The answer to understanding my own deceitfulness, my own lying tongue, comes from God – my Creator, the Creator of all. He knows truth even when I have trouble understanding. If I am willing to listen, He will speak truth to me. He will change my heart.
I have, for a while, been growing in the awareness that I need to learn to listen: listen to God, listen to others, listen to my own thinking. To listen does not always mean to agree or to submit. When I listen to God, I want to agree and submit. When I listen to others, I learn about God’s heart, I learn to love, by hearing their cries. Sometimes what I learn requires words or actions on my part. Sometimes listening and learning is the best thing I can do. When I listen to myself, I can examine my motives and desires to see how they align with the heart of God. I can invite the Spirit of God to change my heart.
I invite you to join me today and grow with me as we learn to listen, learn to allow God to deliver us from lying lips and deceitful tongues even when they belong to us. I invite you to ask yourself, “Am I for peace?” Are we for peace as long as peace comes because others conform to our desires? And if we find that we need to change, I invite you to lift your eyes to the hills and remember the Lord who made heaven and earth is the One who is our help.