Devotions

A concerned husband went to see the family doctor. “I think my wife is deaf,” he said. “She never hears me the first time I say something.”

“Go home tonight,” the doctor suggested. “Stand fifteen feet from her, and say something. If she doesn’t reply, move five feet closer and say it again. Keep doing this so we can get an idea of the severity of her deafness.”

The husband went home and did exactly as instructed. “Honey, what’s for dinner?” he said. No response, so he moved five feet closer and asked, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Finally, he moved right behind her and asked the question again.

“For the fourth time,” she said, “chicken!”

Guess who was actually the deaf one?

We can laugh over this story, but it tells an important truth: we always assume it’s the other person who has the problem.

Jesus addressed this issue in the last part of the Sermon on the Mount. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3, ESV). As the great nineteenth-century preacher Charles H. Spurgeon aptly put it, “None are more unjust in their judgments of others than those who have a high opinion of themselves.”

I have asked couples in marriage counseling to name their ‘logs’ before telling me their spouse’s ‘specks.’ It’s amazing how hard it is for them to think of their own issues. F. B. Meyer, once said, “When we see a brother or sister in sin, there are three things we do not know and [must] keep in mind before we pass judgment: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. Second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. Third, we do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.” Good words to remember.

If you want to judge, judge yourself first. Logs before specks. You’ll be so busy getting rid of your own log that you won’t have time for others’ specks. Get this and you will build deep, meaningful, long-term relationships.

_{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}

Many people find it difficult to think of God as a loving father. They see him through eyes clouded with pain from their past experiences with an ungodly father or stepfather.

Thousands of Christians do not believe God loves them because their earthly father abandoned, wounded or grieved them badly. I pray that this message will speak not only to them but also to those of you who have not yet discovered the depths of the heavenly Father’s love.

Many of us know the scriptures and the theology behind God’s great love for his children. However, very few of us have learned to appropriate that love, and we therefore can’t enjoy its benefits.

Listen to how God described himself to Moses. “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7, NKJV).

When we are in the midst of our trials, we forget what God has said about his own nature. If we would only believe him in such times, we would have great assurance in our souls. From cover to cover, the Bible speaks to us as God’s voice, revealing to us how tender and loving he is.

God is ready to forgive at all times. “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Psalm 86:5). He is patient with us, full of tenderness and mercy. “Great are your tender mercies, O Lord” (Psalm 119:156). “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy” (Psalm 145:8).

When you go to the Lord in prayer and worship, be very careful what kind of image of God you take into his presence. You must be fully convinced of his love for you and believe that he is all that he says he is.

The prophet Isaiah provides us with an example of how we can heal our tongue.

1. Isaiah drew near to the Lord and prayed for a vision of God’s holiness. “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1, NKJV).

Anyone who wants to live a life that pleases God must constantly go into his presence until he sees God’s holiness. All healing, true blessings and victories begin at his throne. That is where we see God in his holiness!

2. While standing in God’s holy presence, Isaiah was deeply convicted for having unclean lips. “Then I said: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’” (Isaiah 6:5).

Why did Isaiah cry out, “I am a man of unclean lips”? It was because he had seen the king of glory. God’s presence exposes everything that is unlike him.

3. Isaiah allowed the Lord to touch him and cleanse him with his sacred fire. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

God’s Word is a live coal, and the Holy Spirit is its fire. Right now you have been touched by the Holy Spirit through this message, and God wants to purify you with its flame. He can do it if you will let his Word reach your innermost being. He is the only one who can do it. Your part is simply to confess, as Isaiah did, “Woe is me, I am unclean.”

I pray that the power of God’s Word will touch and purify you. Confess, “Yes, it is me, Lord; I will not let this conviction pass me by. Cleanse my mouth and my heart.”

“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37, NKJV).

We seem to think our words simply fall to the ground and die or vanish into thin air and dissolve into nothingness. Not so! Our words live on; they do not die.

You may say, “But I only told this gossip to one friend, and they promised never to repeat it. It will end with them.” No, it will not. Every single word you and I utter is recorded and written down in eternity. We will hear them all repeated to us at the judgment.

I recall coming under deep conviction after sharing a vicious bit of gossip with a friend. What I said was indeed true. It was about a moral situation I’d had to deal with concerning a minister. His name came up in the conversation, and I said, “Don’t trust him. I know something about him.”

Even as I mouthed off, I felt condemned. The Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Stop right there. Nobody needs to know that. Don’t say more because there’s no purpose to it. Even though it’s true, don’t repeat it!”

What I had already said was bad enough, but then I blurted out the lurid details. I knew I should have been quiet; and sure enough, I was deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit. Later, I called my friend and said, “I’m sorry. That was gossip. I was out of order. Please don’t repeat it. Try not to even think about it.”

Is my sin covered by the blood of Jesus? Yes, because I fully acknowledged that I had sinned, and I allowed the Holy Spirit to show me some of the legalistic pride left in me. I allowed him to humble me and heal me.

Now, whenever I begin to say something against somebody, I obey the Holy Spirit as I hear him say, loud and clear, “Stop!”

Whenever I said something naughty as a child, my mother washed out my mouth with soap. It was not my mouth that needed cleansing, though; it was my heart! You see, your tongue speaks what is already in your heart. Those are the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he says that loose, careless, evil talk can come only from an unclean heart.

As believers, we have not taken seriously what our Lord said about taming our tongues. He has made it a heart issue. Not only does my careless tongue discount all my spirituality, but it also reveals to me that my heart is unclean.

If I gossip, tell off-color jokes, run down other people, raise my voice and scream at my family, I must ask myself, “What unclean, filthy stuff is still stored up in me that I could speak this way?”

I must examine my heart and ask, “Where does this come from? There must be something I haven’t dealt with, or I wouldn’t be saying such things. Why do I go on gossiping? Why do I utter mean, careless words? What unsanctified strongholds still exist in my heart?”

Jesus gave this matter serious weight. “How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:34-35, NKJV). Jesus was saying, “If you are careless with your tongue—quarreling, complaining, murmuring, tattling—you have a serious heart problem, and it goes very deep.”

Whenever I allow something unclean to come out of my lips, I must stop and say to the Lord, “Master, there must still be a root of sin in my heart. Dig deep into my heart and pluck out the roots of bitterness, pride, jealousy or whatever it is.” God wants to help you deal with every sin that pulls you into its grip. All you have to do is ask him; he will root it out and heal you completely.