Words are Cheap
For some people, their word is their bond. If they say they will do something, they will move heaven and earth to do it. It costs them something when they speak, so they are careful what they say. More and more we are seeing people who use words to manipulate, stall and deceive themselves and others. For them, words are cheap. They just open their mouths and words come out, leaving a trail of hurt feelings, lies and betrayal. Jesus said,
...out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Mt.12:34
What is in your heart? As you speak to others, do your words reveal the character of your heart? If the words of your mouth reveal a cheap person, you can't hide it. Others will know you for what you are because you always say one thing and do another. Why? Because you want others to think well of you but you don't want to pay the price to actually become what your word represent. It isn't cheap to keep your word. It costs time, money, and sometimes giving up your own way. You have to give of yourself to others. The price can be quite high to have integrity.
If a brother or sister be desperate for food and you tell them to "depart in peace; be warm and filled" but you do not give them anything to eat, how does it profit you? James 2:15-16
Giving them food is the action behind the words. The action is what keeps words from being cheap. It takes time and money to feed the hungry people around you and even the ones of this world. Have you heard someone say how much compassion they have for hungry people? Next time ask them (maybe ask yourself) what they are doing to help. Buying extra food and taking it to a homeless shelter or even writing a check to a food program adds action to your words. It keeps your words from being cheap.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22
This is an article about change. Hopefully we will wake up and stop letting our words turn us into jerks. Are you a parent who never has time for your children? What do your words tell others? "I love my children. I don't know what I would do if I lost my family." If you never have time to sit and read a book to your child or cuddle them before bed, you are speaking cheap words. That doesn't mean you don't love your kids. You just don't love them enough to do something about it. You are saying what you know you should say but actions do speak louder than words. When your children are grown will they have fond memories of loving parents who where actually there when they needed them? Or were you always busy promoting your career.
...there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. Mt. 10:26
Abe Lincoln said, "You can't fool all the people all the time." Well, you can't fool God at all, anytime. God really does know what we are inside. He accepts us exactly as we are but he wants to change us because he knows that is what will really bring us happiness. Selfish people have to fight all the time to maintain their self-centeredness. Someone is always trying to get you to do something you don't want to do. They want us to talk to them, do something with them or give them something. They want us to share our innermost thoughts, and we are afraid they will see who we really are and be disappointed. We develop protections that we throw at others because we feel vulnerable. We withdraw into ourselves and our own pursuits (TV, sports, reading, movies, hobbies, work) avoiding giving an inch and yet we tell the ones we are rejecting that we are giving everything we can and they are the problem. We use cheap words to avoid giving and it fools nobody but our own little selfish self.
So why are we trying so hard to hide who we are? God is the only one who matters. Do we really believe we can lie to Him and get by with it? I think not but we do it just the same. "God I want to be like you!" but don't ask me to love those you died for. Don't expect me to embrace the downtrodden, lowly masses of humanity that I don't even know. Don't ask me to be unprejudiced toward homosexuals (heterosexuals) or people with deformities or different colored skin. Or those Arabs or Chinese or hippies or rappers or drug addicts, strippers or drunks. I don't want to run with the religious nuts who go to my church or the good ol' boys down the street. I want to pick and choose who I show God's love to as if, yes, as if I were God. I want to say what others want to hear. We don't fool God. We might fool a few people who aren't around us much but when the time comes to back up our words we fall on our faces.
So what is the answer, now that we know the problem? How do we go from a selfish jerk to acting like God? It's in the word:
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mk.12:30-31
That means we have to start thinking about what we want and return to the love of our lives, God. Sometimes we get out of God's will because we get too busy doing what he has called us to do. Anytime we get away from loving God with all our heart, soul and strength. We forget that he is the reason we live. We love him, spend the big T word "TIME" with him and then love others. Love never says one thing and does another.
He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 2:35
We have to get into the word and listen to what it has to say to us. When God speaks you will know it. He will teach you how to be a man or woman of integrity. Look at what he did in the old testament. He took people who were deceivers, liars, murders and more, making them into mighty men and women of God. He will teach you by his Holy Spirit to be just like Jesus. You can do it.
God is calling us to come up higher. You can get out of the rat race of selfish ambition, pursuits and actions. Let God turn you into a lover of people. He will make you a giver and it won't even hurt.
Words are cheap. Let's put something behind what we say. Life is too short to let those we love do without love because we give them empty words. In the long run, what we say points us in the right direction but what we do determines whether we have sincerity of heart or not.