“O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.” — Psalm 139:1

Can the enemy hear my thoughts? Maybe you have wondered this. I know I have. Rest assured that only God can know our thoughts and the feelings we have because He is the only all-knowing (Omniscient), all-powerful (Omnipotent), and always present (Omnipresent) Creator. God knows every possible outcome, at any moment past, present, and future. Does your brain hurt yet?! 

God can hear our thoughts and knows us better than we know ourselves.

“You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.” — Psalm 139:4

This should be a comforting conviction to us—something that evokes a reverent awe and fear to know that we are truly never alone, and the audience we hold is with the Creator of the universe. Satan on the other hand can only hear what we speak verbally. He is not all-knowing or all-powerful, and not able to be present everywhere at all times. And he most certainly does not know everything about us!  So if our enemy can’t know our thoughts, what about what we write down? This is different. For what we write down is open to all who read it.

Words have the power of life and death, whether written or said aloud.

“The tongue can bring death or life, those who talk will reap the consequences.” — Proverbs 18:21

Sometimes I think we forget that our written words, like an email or social media post, have the power of life and death. As digital media advances rapidly in our culture, I think we have lost an important self-regulating social tool that was always present in our face-to-face interactions. Simply put, we used to have to reap the consequences for what we said, face-to-face and in real time. Now it seems, we can freely write things we would never actually utter aloud. Perhaps we deceive ourselves into thinking we would actually say such things. The ability to filter our words appropriately is missing because we are alone as we type. At least we think we are. 

Social cues have become lost because our world has gone digital.

Let’s wrap this up by focusing on our social media culture for a minute. It’s a quick flyby socialization with no real-time response cues. Reading another human’s body language as we speak is an important social tool we use to get positive and negative feedback. This feedback helps us grow and learn relationally. Experts tell us tone and body language comprise around 90% of our communication. This means we must take extra steps to make up for this deficiency in our digital world. 

Let’s get out of our heads and always speak written words to at least one trusted person before posting or sending! Deal?! 

Let’s be diligent to ensure we are communicating in love. I invite you to be real and to take an honest look at the words you speak versus the words you type. Are they drastically different? It may be time for an inventory of the heart. God is patiently waiting at the door, and He longs to be invited in. He wants to help you with your heart and your speech.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart” — Psalm 139:23

- Jessica Ritchie, Worship Leader