Words – Filling Our Coffers

Whoohoo! That’s the best word I can come up with for how excited I am to see just how many women have joined the Bible study and are excited about knowing the Lord better and growing in His Word more! You ladies have blessed me with your emails and encouraged me in our journey together! Oh yeah, whoohoo!

WHAT’S IN THE WORKS
We’re beginning a new study today and as usual, we will have a lesson today, Wednesday and Friday. But before I get into this weeks study, I want you to know what’s in the works. On January 24th I’m going to begin a study of Philippians. It’s the bones of the Bible study I’m preparing to send to the publisher and you ladies will be part of the process! I can’t wait to hear from you as we travel down this road together!

Since I will continue to do the studies on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, I will only be providing three days of the study each week instead of the five that will be available in the book. But I’ll be sure we highlight the important parts of the verses I won’t be covering online.

Philippians 3:7-14 are my life verses and I absolutely love how rich and practical this power-packed Pauline epistle is! So I hope you’ll make plans to join me each week and to invite some friends to join us all for an exciting, encouraging and challenging study! Remember, women in the Word = women of the Word!

Now let’s dive head first into this week’s study – WORDS. It was birthed from some blunders I neglected to fix before I scheduled last Friday’s post. I didn’t have time to edit it thoroughly and Feedburner faithfully sent it to your inbox – errors and all. In the 7th paragraph I wrote, “But God takes us out of the ball game.” Oops. What I meant to say was “But God doesn’t take us out of the ballgame.” What a difference one word makes. What a difference our words make. What a difference THE WORD makes.

Our words are the result of what we think and feel – the overflow of our hearts, often before we take the time to let our minds process them.

Look at what the BIble says in Matthew 12:34-37

“33…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 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. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

WOW! Most of us have read this passage before but have we ever intentionally used these verses to filter every word we say. If not, shouldn’t we?

Let’s take a few minutes and put our lives under the microscope of these convicting verses.

1. According to verse 33, where do our words come from?

2. Did you notice the phrase “abundance of the heart”? That word abundance means that which you delight in and that which fills your heart. Based on the words that have come out of your mouth in the last week, what does your heart delight in? What fills your heart?

3. In verse 35, the word treasure means a coffer or a storehouse. That means we can intentionally fill our coffers with “good” things that will overflow into “good” words. What are you filling your coffer with?

4. Do you need to replace the source of treasure from which you are filling your coffer? In other words, do you need to eliminate some of the influences in your life and replace them with the Word of God and other good and godly sources so that you’re filling your storehouse with that which will become a well overflowing with good word choices?

5. Verse 36 brings gravity to our reality. It’s funny the word idle in the original language means “free from labor; lazy.” That means the words we just say off the cuff – those words that just fly out of our mouths – we will give an account for them on the Day of Judgment. As a Christian, we won’t have to pay for the sinful words we’ve said because Jesus paid for all our sins, including our poor word choices. But the Bema Seat of Christ is still a judgment of our works. It’s not going to be a cake walk. It’s serious business. So, based on the reality of our ultimate judgment, don’t you think it’s wise to be more cautious with what you say?

6. Since being more cautious with what we say begins by being more careful about what we allow to influence us – What are some changes you need to make in your life to filter what goes into your coffer?

James 3:9-10 says, “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.”

What we say is a good indicator of what’s in our hearts. We aren’t going to automatically say what we ought if we haven’t filled the coffer of our heart with that which is good. It’s important to remember that we are the one who chooses what we store up in our hearts. The overflow will reveal what was there in the first place.

We’ve all heard the saying “garbage in, garbage out.” Well the reverse is also true. “Good stuff in, good stuff out.”

So, what are you filling the coffer of your heart with?

Don’t miss Wednesday’s study of “The Power of Our Words.”

I’d love to walk with you in the Word! Please click here to subscribe by email or click one of the links on the right hand side to subscribe through your Google Feeder or through Facebook’s Networkedblog.

4 Comments

  1. I'll be joining you for the Philippians study!

  2. Kela ~ I'm so excited you'll be joining us! I LOVE- LOVE – LOVE Philippians! We are going to have such a good time in the Word together. Please be sure to offer input! Can't wait! 🙂

  3. Lord,

    Fill my heart with truth, with love, with kindness, with grace, so everytime I speak I can rest assured that my words will represent you well.

    Thank you for Stephanie and her love for Your Word. Show her something in Your Word today that will give her glory bumps!

    In the Name of Jesus I pray, AMEN

  4. Lee ~ Thank you SO much for your sweet prayer. You are ever encouraging!
    By the way – I LOVE “GLORY BUMPS”! I never heard of that before, but I love it! I've heard of “God bumps” but not “glory bumps.”

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