(5) The Art Of Communication

      

In my last post I said that we'll deal with how we talk  to OURSELVES. Now I don't intend to play the psychologist, but every day we do carry on conversations with ourselves. You know what they say, "its all right to think out loud, but there might be something wrong when you start to answer yourself."  

Author H. Norman Wright in his book Communication notes that, "Most of your emotions-such as anger, depression, guilt, worry-are initiated and escalated by your self-talk?"

So without dragging this out, let me get to the heart of the matter. As I noted in the last blog on communication, the Bible has much to say about our thinking and our words, whether those words are spoken out or they are spoken in (self-talk). Author Wright notes that "The words "think," "thought" and "mind" are used over 300 times in the Bible," sounds like we should pay careful attention to what God says about our words and our thought life, agree?

How we then talk to ourselves will determine how we relate to others (God) included. God gives us a wonderful formula on how we should self-talk, listen carefully to those things that God tells us that we should be thinking about, Philippians 4:8 in the New Living Translation  puts it so succinctly:  "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."  

Let me close on this thought, Jesus told us that those things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. It is always a heart issue, God is always looking under the surface. It is under the hood so to speak where the engine runs.

The good news in all this is that the believers thoughts and words CAN come under the control of the Holy Spirit. So how are your thoughts? Are you understanding that what you say, feel, and how you think about others all starts on the inside first? Give yourself wholly to the Lord and immerse you mind in His Divine Word for His Glory and honor.

In the next post I will discuss "thinking before you speak."