Tuesday, September 7th – Our Conduct Matters

“One morning at the breakfast table a father asked God’s blessing on the food as usual. In pious and exalted language he thanked the Lord for all His bountiful provisions. But when he started eating, he grumbled about the poor quality of the food and complained about the way it was cooked. His teenager interrupted him.

“Dad,” she began, “do you think God heard your prayer?” “Certainly,” he replied confidently.

“And did He also hear when you complained about the bacon and coffee just now?” she asked. “Why, of course!” he bellowed. “Then which of your statements did God believe?” The flush on
his cheeks made it obvious that her discerning question had hit home.

Too often our prayers are nothing more than empty rhetoric. We mouth beautiful words, but they seem to come from the top of our heads, not the bottom of our hearts. Many of our public prayers are pompous and wordy, and our private prayers are anemic and trite. We forget that what we say to God must be consistent with how we live.

Let’s shun the hypocrisy of superficially thanking God while deep in our hearts we are dissatis- fied with our blessings. Beware of inconsistent prayer.”

I read a story about a pastor who was building a trellis for his roses while a young boy was watching just wanted to know what a preacher says when he hits his thumb with a hammer. Whether a pastor or not, whether someone is around or not; whatever we say matters. We may even find ourselves looking around to see if someone heard us, know that if no one did God did and it matters to Him. And so if it matters to God it must be to us as well.

Families have torn apart because of the tongue. I have seen friendships destroyed because of the tongue and I have seen Christians leave the Church and Churches split because of the words we speak; that’s why we need to use our words wisely.

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