“You know what I am going to say even before I say it Lord” – Psalm 139:4

 

Fifty-percent of the time when I read the words of Psalm 139:4 a warm, genuine peace floods my heart. The realization that the God of the entire universe, the Creator of all things, has taken the time to know every little detail about me including the exact words I am going to say before I even say them, is simply incredible!  Unfortunately, despite the warm-fuzzies I feel fifty-percent of the time, there is still the other fifty-percent to contend with.  

 Sometimes, like this morning, when I read “You know what I am going to say even before I say it Lord”, the other fifty-percent hits me like a ton bricks.  Holy smokes! That’s right! God knows exactly what I am about to say before I say it. Yikes!  That means last week right before I sounded off in full vent style about what I thought was unfair in a certain situation, God knew every word I said before I said it.  Or that morning when I rudely snapped at my sweet hubby just because I hadn’t had my morning cup of coffee yet, God knew exactly what snappy words about to come out of my mouth.  And then there was that one afternoon that I actually did say some really good things although, come to think of it, my good words were for all the wrong reasons and God knew each word before I said it. Ouch!

 The fact that God knows everything we are about to say, can be challenging, particularly because we all love to let a little negative talk slip out about others, don’t we?  Maybe not in an out loud, gossiping to others sort of way, but we sure can find unique, subtle ways to express what we want, when we want, especially if it’s something negative about others, can’t we?  But here’s an interesting concept. While God knows those little things we are going to say about others before we say them, He also knows those little things we say about ourselves long before we ever say them and how what we say about ourselves is not all that good.

 Whether expressed out loud or whispered inwardly, many of us have an endless barrage of negative self-talk that weighs us down on a daily basis without even realizing it.  Words like I can’t do this, I’m not good enough for that, I’m too old, too young, too dumb, or too weak are words that we repeat to ourselves consistently either consciously or sub-consciously.   

 While we may become aware at some point of how damaging our pessimistic comments are when we mumble them about others, we seldom realize how damaging those same comments are when expressed about ourselves.  

 Do we ever stop to think just how our subtle disapproving comments about ourselves must make God feel?

 Like a loving parent, God looks upon us, His children with great joy and pride. What good parents wouldn’t be greatly saddened to hear their beautiful children belittle themselves with a constant flow of negative words?  I wonder if that’s why God teaches us in James 1:19 to “Be slow to speak?”   

 I used to think it was because He knew we needed to be reminded not to blurt out something idiotic to someone in the heat of the moment.  While I’m sure that’s true, if we take scriptures like Psalm 139:4 into consideration, perhaps it’s also because God knew our tendencies to blurt out disapproving words and down play ourselves despite the fact that He made us perfect in His image.  

 Considering that God knows a hundred-percent of the time what we are going to say before we say it, we need to make sure we are saying good things about ourselves like how smart, strong, wise, and good God created us to be (despite how our actions don’t always measure up).  If those words seem a bit too positive for you, then simple say what God already knows “With God’s help all things are possible.”

 Surely we will still have those occasional nonsense days where we have to apologize to God and others for the rotten things that come out of our mouth which God already knew we were going to say but as we consciously speak more positively about ourselves, we will naturally bend toward speaking more positively about others and about life in general. And God will know and He will be pleased.

 

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