words matter.

today we're reading Philippians 2:1-8

read this text

Today's post is hard, so I want to get right to it. 
I think we need a heart check. 
A genuine heart check. 
I want to be completely transparent with this post, because I trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding my words. 
We need to start prayerfully considering the way we use this phrase:
"I just feel like the Lord is calling me to..."
I know that we joke about this phrase and how it's used (trust me, I saw the TikToks), but we really need to talk about this. 
There is a belief that we need to use the phrase "I feel like the Lord is calling me to..." to help ease the effects of something hard we want to tell someone
Trust me, I want to do this all the time. 
I think that I feel like if I say things like that, it grants the other person a little more comfort and it makes me feel like not a bad person. 
Trust me: I get you. 
But the power of the Holy Spirit is not something we just get to use when we don't want to be honest. 
We don't get to use the authority of Jesus whenever we want. 
We don't get to hide under the guise of the Holy Spirit to say and do things that are not of the Spirit. 
Now here's the real issue:
We use that phrase to justify actions that don't reflect what Jesus would do. 
We use that phrase to justify words that don't reflect what Jesus would say. 
We use that phrase to justify thoughts that don't reflect what Jesus would think.

Real talk: sayings like that can cause religious trauma. ​

 They start to show people that Jesus condones hurtful comments. 
They start to show people that Jesus condones them feeling intentionally hurt. 
I know this, because I was hurt by a phrase like that. 
I heard someone tell me something like that and I felt like Jesus Himself was causing my pain. 
Christians we HAVE to check our hearts and the intentions behind our words; we cannot mark them with our personal desires. 
Fun fact: our lives in Christ do not prioritize our personal desires.
Our lives in Christ actually have nothing to do with our personal desires and if anything, are meant to push away from our personal desires and take on the desires of the Lord. 
Everything we do, I mean everything, is about Jesus. 
Every choice we make points back to Jesus. 
Every word we say points straight to Jesus. 

If we are seeking to be recognized as people who reflect Jesus, we have to seek to reflect Jesus. ​

How do we mark our words then?
1. Start them with prayer.
Genuinely. 
Philippians 4:6 says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
2. Set the Lord as the source of wisdom in your speech and if at any time you feel yourself being led to act on your own intentions, recenter your heart on Jesus. 
Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." 
Do it.  
3. Speak with a genuine spirit of understanding, love, and kindness. 
The Spirit of God does not come to cause confusion, anger, or hurt. 
4. Ask yourself if you're trying to make yourself happy more than you're trying to satisfy the Lord. 
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Jesus' prayer in the garden because it shows us Jesus' heart in a way we had never seen it before. Jesus himself says this: "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done". 

Friends, I want nothing more than for the world to know Jesus.

But if we want the world to know Jesus for who He is, a loving servant who sacrifices for the Lord, we have to check our heart. 
I'm worried that we're unintentionally causing religious trauma.
I'm even more worried that we've turned this kind of religious trauma into a joke or a meme. 
Matters of the Lord are serious. 
Matters of the Spirit are serious. 
If we believe that, let's start acting like that. 
Let's start speaking like that. 
Let's start thinking like that. 
Let's start loving like that.