Before we tell someone else what God is saying to them, we need to let God say what he needs to say to us. Let us instruct others only after receiving and successfully applying God’s instructions. 

One of our primary daily tasks is getting God’s words of truth and life in us so that they may shape everything we produce in speech, writing, and work.  These verses in Ezekiel stand shoulder to shoulder with what God said in Deuteronomy 6:6-9:

Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts.
Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children.
Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street;
talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.
Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder;
inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
(The Message)

We are to live lives saturated in God’s words of truth and grace. 

Again, before we speak to others, we must allow God to speak to us. Know his heart and mind and allow this to shape every thought, every word, every response, every initiative. 

This lifestyle provides helpful curbs to unnecessary words. It provides guardrails for unhelpful speech. It provides welcome simplicity in an increasingly argumentative world. 

Know the truth. Speak the truth in love. Allow the truth to have its way in our lives and in the lives of others.

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I will get God’s words of truth and life deeply embedded in my life.

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Our Father, speak to me that I may have something to say. Empower me to live what I say I believe so that others may see how you shape lives for the better. Fill my heart and mind with your truth and wisdom so that I will know what to do and say – and what to leave undone and unsaid – in every circumstance. Amen.