Proverbs 15:28-30 RA Heart Bone Connected To Mouth Bone

Proverbs 15:28 The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. 29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. 30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. In chapter 15 Solomon has been giving us some great insight into the connection between our mouth and our heart. It’s true, the mouth bone is connected to the heart bone. And we talked about how God is the heart changer… not us. A wicked person will not change his wicked heart. His wickedness prevents him from doing so. But when God opens our eyes to see Jesus as the greatest treasure worth leaving all for… we realize there is something better than all the options the world has shown us all our life and we when turn from sin and delight in Jesus with faith, he gives us a new heart… and since our mouth bone is still connected to our heart bone the words we speak begin to change as God does a work in us practically. Now Solomon is diving deeper into the root issues of the heart. Look, positionally we are given Jesus righteousness when God gives us a new heart… but practically we are a work in progress as God does a life long work in our heart. ... Todays passage begins by saying: The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. I suppose if God was finished working on our heart and we were practically perfect we would not need to ponder much before answering others. But as long as we are in this broken world and in these broken bodies, we still have brokenness tugging at our heart… wanting to mold it back to the old form. So when we are tempted to gossip... we ponder. When there is a pull to seek our own glory or exalt ourselves… we ponder. And to ponder means to give thought to something before committing to it. It means running something by a set of foundational truths that you know are unmovable. We all need trustworthy checks and balances to discern between all the lies being shared in the world. If something sounds good from only one angle or way of looking at it… thats not criteria worth committing to as truth. If something feels good or right it holds no real evidence for a unmovable truth. What is our go to for truth? It is Gods word. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us connecting the dots in his word and opening our eyes to truth in amazing and undeniable ways. So even though you may be a righteous person, Solomon says to ponder before you answer. And so even though the mouth bone is connected to the heart bone… the heart bone is connected is also connected to the brain. Solomon goes on to say how the mouth of the wicked pour out evil things and the Lord is far from them. Then todays passage finishes with some good news. Solomon says: he hears the prayer of the righteous. So God is not far from the righteous… I suppose we might say he is working in our lives practically because he actually lives in us… But God hears our prayers… I hope I don’t ever take that for granted… It is amazing that the Creator of the Universe hears my individual and specific prayers to him… all of them! And so prayer is another gift God has given us that is actually included in our pondering. I am sure there have been plenty of times I should have prayed to the Lord before giving an answer to others. Verse 30 says: The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. For the heart that has been changed… the heart that is walking in the Holy Spirit… the heart that ponders its thoughts and runs them by the word of God… I believe the Lord quickens all our bones for joy and his mission. Our mission is no longer to let everyone else see how great we think we are… but we want to see more of the glory of God and share him. So the light of the glory of God living in us as we walk with Christ will be seen in our eyes and heard in the good news which we bring to others.