“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
[Cue movie announcer’s voice:] If you only attach one Bible verse to your forehead this year, attach this one.[/announcer]
To my knowledge, King David of Israel never Googled anything. He didn’t have Facebook or Twitter. He didn’t write comments on someone’s Instagram. But under the inspiration of God, he wrote Psalm 19:14 for all those of us who do those things today.
The Internet and our smartphones practically beg you and me to convert every random thought in our heads into published words. That’s dangerous, and it should scare us way more than it does. Not just because we might say something to make ourselves look foolish – but because we might write something unkind or deceptive or immoral and make our God look foolish.
Maybe even worse, the Internet offers an avalanche of ideas and images for our hearts to “meditate” on. And even if we don’t consciously think about them all, our “hearts” and minds are always processing those messages. We must develop the ability to delete the worthless thoughts and keep the valuable ones.
David sees that the only hope for pleasing God with our words and thoughts comes from our Rock and Redeemer.
Think: Do you have a different standard for what you will say and think about online or on your phone than in the rest of your life? Is that standard more or less pleasing to God than the one you stick to in the real world?
Pray: Write down this verse with your hand and pray it every day this week and/or month and/or year.
Do: Notice someone who reflects God’s character on any social network this week and thank him or her for that.