"These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:8-9)
Jesus said that out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks. Of course this is true, but we also see from Matthew 15:8 that it is possible to say something that's not in your heart. Of course, ultimately, your heart will be shown through your words.
Words and observations enter through the realm of the soul. When words come into the mind, a decision must be made and the decision is this. You must decide whether to keep or reject the words that have just entered. If you accept them, they will eventually enter the heart and either strengthen the fear or strengthen the faith. Every thought you have either complements or contends with faith.
When Jesus was talking to His disciples about leaving in John 16:6 He said, "Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." Your heart can be sad or it can be happy. A great determination of whether you have a sad or happy heart is by whether you accept words of victory or words of defeat, words of light or words of darkness that enter into the realm of the soul.
When I was in high school, some of my friends and I would randomly pick out a student and each of us throughout the day while passing in the hall would tell him he looked like he didn't feel well. At first, they would reject it and say something like, "I don't feel bad." But after a few hours of several different people saying the same thing, the chosen student would be in the school clinic asking if they could go home because they didn't feel good.
What we did wasn't nice and I don't recommend for any young person reading this to do what I did. However, it does prove a principle. If you listen to a lie and allow it to enter your heart, you will eventually speak the lie yourself and act on it.
We may say things we don't believe, but if we continue to repeat the lies of the devil, these lies will embed themselves in our hearts. Then we will speak them and they will become reality.
As words enter your thought realm, keep the good and reject the bad. Examine every thought and determine its source. Anything that is not of God should be rejected.
Devotion 0334