Speak the Message

But Balaam replied, "I will speak only the message the Lord puts in my mouth."

   -Numbers 23:12   (NLT)

Oh how I wish my tongue only spoke the Lord's message. My heart longs to do so, but when the words come out, they are often not of the Lord. They are more of me and about me. Sometimes I think the Lord's message is obscured by my focus on the daily reality I live in. Like a dusty window, or the shadows that form even in the light, the Lord's message is cloaked & hidden. 

Paul writes in Romans 7:14-15, "The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do (speak) what is right, but I don't do it." His view is it is the sin living within us that causes us to do wrong. But the cure, the answer, the antidote, is Jesus Christ. The Lord. The same Lord who will put the love in my heart, on my tongue, and who will give me the message I am to speak.

I look through the dust and shadow and difficulty of this day and wish I was on the other side ~ the side of light and love. How do I get there? Perhaps it is as simple as walking through the doorway presented. As simple as taking a breath in silence to listen. As simple as stopping to offer a short prayer or thanksgiving. As simple as taking a deliberate step in a new direction. That of others, not self ~ a step toward love. It is through my faith in Jesus Christ that I can take that step to speak the Lord's message today and all days. 

Thanks be to God.