As I looked over my library for this week’s inspiration, I bumped into some readings from Renew my Heart, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. It is a compilation of words from the sermons of John Wesley. John Wesley always inspired through his heartwarming messages and his commitment to Paul’s imperative “By grace you have been saved, through faith.” Wesley knew how to transform the heart.
The reading set aside for this devotional talks about conversation. Here is the first paragraph of the June 7 devotional (used by permission):
Our times of taking food are usually times of conversation. It is natural to refresh our minds while we refresh our bodies. One hopes the subjects of conversation would be harmless, modest, true and kind, with no tale-bearing, backbiting, or evil-speaking. But it must also be good: good in itself and on a good subject, You must indeed speak of worldly things, otherwise you may as well go out of this world. But it should be only so far as is needful, then return to a better subject. Secondly, the conversation must be useful to either build up the speaker, the listeners, or both: Lift them up in faith, in love, or holiness. Thirdly, see that it gives not only entertainment, but in one way or another, ministers grace to the hearts. This is "a more excellent way" than mere harmlessness.
His devotional thoughts use language more formal than I my own. We can simplify the context for our time into 3 points.
- Conversation must be good.
- Conversation must build up the speaker or the listener.
- Conversation needs a way to minister grace to the heart.
Transform to be good
I remember as a child that I had found a Latin language study guide. I was fascinated that there were so many root words that carried over into parts of the English language. My curiosity got me in trouble when I started looking for the root parts of vulgar words that had carried over into the modern context. In retrospect it was an innocent and uninformed study task. When my dad learned about my study, he was quite upset that I was digging into vulgar words. Indeed, I learned a lesson from that. My dad was not a Christian and neither was I at the time. What came out of that was the discovery that there was no value in pursuing ‘the bad’. By directing my interests to language in a proper way, I learned that I can find good in many languages, and the pursuit of bad was never useful. It was a minor incident in my life, but it was transformative. It set me on a path to pursue good.
Transform to build up
For most of the times that children have socialized and participated in school, there have been bullies. When we think about bullies, a universal characteristic of these individuals is that they gain a sense of power by tearing people down. The only way we stand against a bully is to not play the role of ‘victim’. If you are on the speaking side of an issue, being in the role of uninformed can cause a lot of damage. “So-and so” is a bad person because he/she did such and such. We can fill in the blank for so and so and such and such. We may discover that any effort to speak badly about a person is not true, or the understanding of the situation is incorrect. It all goes back to the mamma expression -“If you do not have something nice to say, do not say it at all. ” Certainly we can find bad things to say about anyone. What is remembered and what lasts is the good stuff we say. The bad stuff will not make us better. It will only damage us.Add grace to transform
Wesley’s last point is the most useful point for me to remember: Conversation needs to minister grace to the hearts, in some way. If I cannot remember to build up or to be good, I need to deliver grace, somehow. I have to admit, this action is hard for me. If I am tired or frustrated, my first thought is not to deliver grace to the person who stands in my way.
My mind needs to be transformed, in order to deliver grace. It may not come easily. How can I — we — have grace under fire? The answer is in the role we have towards being a victim. As Christian, I forgave all those people who bullied me. Negative energy can only pull me down. By turning to Christ, we can find a positive energy which builds us up and changes us. We can think of this positive energy as grace.
Consider, any sickly plant that we have had in our lives. It is likely to die unless we can give it the positive resources it needs. Plants thrive on positive energy.
Consider, any sickly plant that we have had in our lives. It is likely to die unless we can give it the positive resources it needs. Plants thrive on positive energy.A well cared-for plant grows, and looks nothing like the sickly one. It has been transformed.
The secret to letting grace transform us is to realize that good –God’s goodness, though the Holy Spirit, will transform us. The Holy Spirit will take away the negative energy and replace the bad with positive if we let Him. Earlier I cited Ephesians 2:8. The full verse reads: “ 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Grace comes as a gift, from God. We have to accept it to receive it. When we learn to allow God to speak grace into and through us, we are transformed. It is worth it.
