Your words have tremendous power to influence the course of your life. 

Jesus teaches it this way. In Matthew 15, the Pharisees are arguing with Jesus because he and his disciples eat food that is considered “unclean” by Jewish law.  Jesus explains to them, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’... But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.  These are what make a man ‘unclean’” (Matt 15:11-19).

Jesus has connected three things here: thoughts, words, and actions.  They go in that order: your thoughts are seeds, and they get planted in the “soil” of your heart.  They don’t necessarily change the environment right away, but when that seed has been planted, it will germinate, and will spring up and become a tree, which will eventually bear fruit.  So you’d better be careful what you’re planting.

Round and Round We Go

When I was in my early 20s, I realized my life was on a merry-go-round.  I was living essentially the same story over and over again.  The names and details might change, but the characters and circumstances were basically consistent.  I wrestled with this for years; I had an intuitive sense that it was a spiritual principle somehow (because everyone’s story seemed to repeat itself, not just mine!), but I could not for the life of me figure out why. 

I was 25 when I finally understood (and wondered why it had taken me so long, because it seemed so blatantly obvious in retrospect).  In all of those iterations of the same story, there was only one common denominator: me.  I realized that my beliefs were essentially, “My life will always be this way.  I will never get out of this cycle.  I will always repeat this pattern.”  I bitterly said something to this effect every time I told my tale of woe to a sympathetic friend.  I wrote about it every day in my journal.  I prayed about it every day to God - but despite the biblical promises that God had something better for me, I never actually believed what God said my future held.  Instead, I told Him that my future would be exactly the same as my past.  I gained a twisted sense of satisfaction by complaining, little knowing that my words were actually prophetic. I was planting seeds, and those seeds were bearing fruit - unfortunately, the fruit they bore was exactly the same fruit I was already harvesting in my life.  Instead of recognizing this and changing what I planted, I’d cut open that fruit, pull out the seeds, and plant them right back in the soil of my heart.  For years.

Jesus compares the Word of God to a seed in the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-23).  When it falls on good soil and isn’t choked out by the cares of this life and deceitfulness of wealth, Jesus said that seed will germinate, sprout and bear fruit - thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold.  But this process is indifferent: your heart will grow whatever you plant in it, whether the seed is good or bad. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit... For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:33-34; Luke 6:43-45).

Guard Your Heart

The first five books of the Bible contain extremely detailed laws that the Jews had to abide by in order to be “right” with God.  The Pharisees had even added hundreds of additional laws of their own by the time Jesus showed up.  But their laws were all about external actions.  Jesus’ laws went much deeper - his dealt not just with wrong actions, but with the wrong thinking that eventually produced wrong actions (Matt 5).  Jesus said it’s not enough to not commit murder - don’t even think about murder.  It’s not enough not to commit adultery - don’t even look at a woman lustfully.  What’s he saying?  Guard your heart.  He knows that the heart will grow whatever you plant in it.  The thought will eventually produce the words, and the words will eventually produce the actions.

Because the heart grows whatever you plant in it, before anything else you have to start with Solomon’s famous advice: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23). 

So be vigilant about what you plant in your heart.  Solomon talks about this a lot:

• “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.  Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Prov 7:1-3).
• “A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction” (Prov 16:23).
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