Jeffrey C. Long

With harvest time upon us, I am reminded of one of my favorite memories growing up: harvest time at my grandparent’s house. My grandfather and uncles were dry land wheat farmers in eastern Washington. I remember a few times when my mom drove me up to the farm at Coulee City to spend a few nights during wheat harvest. Every meal was sumptuous as the wives of the workers got together to put out an amazing spread. But what excited me the most was the opportunity to climb onto a combine and experience first hand the harvesting of the wheat.

Something that is obvious looking back was that when my grandfather and uncles planted wheat in the spring, they would expect to harvest wheat in the summer. They would ask for a refund from the man that sold them the seed if corn came up instead of wheat. The Bible confirms this. Luke 6:43-34 teaches that we harvest the seeds that we planted. Verse 44 says “A tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.

Many of you garden. You would be rather shocked if you planted a rose bush and up grew a tomato plant. You harvest what you plant. The same is true of the words that come out of our mouth. If what we talk about is filled with barbs and weeds we know that there is a thorny bush in our heart. Verse 45 says “out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks… The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil.”

When I was in college, I found a group of friends that were both musical and very intellectually stimulating. We spent a lot of time around our instruments, and up ’til 3:00 AM talking about politics, theology, philosophy and anything else we were jazzed about at the time. However our creativity had another outlet: The way we spoke to each other and fellow students. We were cynical, sarcastic and hurtful all in the name of teasing. We were Don Rickles, Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman all rolled up into one. Our conversations were filled with barbs and weeds. It wasn’t until I started to be wounded by their words that I realized that what I was participating in demonstrated an evil treasure in my heart bringing out evil.

Here are six things that you can do to examine your heart and plant seeds that will harvest good fruit in your speech.

1. Right before bed review the conversations you had during the day and test whether they were fruit from a good tree.

2. Wake up every morning and list 10 things that you are thankful for. Thankfulness has the capacity to combat depression and negativity, both of which are enemies of holy speech.

3. Pray that God would give you a soft heart… soil for good fruit.

4. Practice being an encourager. The best way to combat something negative in your life is to replace it with something positive. When you are encouraging people, you will find it harder to talk negatively.

5. Read a chapter of Proverbs everyday. A pastor friend says that what you feed grows. The Word of God is the Miracle-Gro of speech that grows out of a fruitful heart. The Proverbs deal specifically with wisdom in our relationships

6. Do some weeding. No matter how diligently you keep your garden, weeds will still grow. So it is with our heart. Unmanaged, they will grow out of control. When you notice bad habits in your speech cropping up, root them out quickly before they take hold and choke out the life of the good fruit in your heart.

May God bless you this week as you seek to Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23