AS HE THINKS IN HIS HEART
Proverbs 23:6-8 NKJV
6 Do not eat the bread of a miser,
Nor desire his delicacies;
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
"Eat and drink!" he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.
8 The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
And waste your pleasant words.
Here is another passage with a great deal of insight. The Scriptures speak often of how our words and our heart are connected. In verses 15-16 of this same chapter the author detects a wise heart in his son when he hears his son speak right things. The wise condition of the heart was evidenced by words. Yet, in our passage for today, the words and the heart do not agree.
Don't eat the bread of a miser. One translation of miser is one with an evil eye. So this is not a good person and not a person one should desire to eat with. To have a meal with someone carried greater meaning in the day these words were written. Today, there are still people you would love to share a meal with and those you would not.
This person with an evil eye is saying to eat and drink, but that’s not what is in his heart. As he thinks in his heart, so is he. In other words, who he is in his heart is who he is, regardless of what he is saying. All of us can relate to that concept. In life, almost all of us have encountered people who said good words to us, but their hearts were not with us. Their words may have been good, but their heart was not. And we usually find this out down the road when they do something that catches us by surprise. We are surprised because their words toward us were good, but at some point, who they really are comes out. We used to call people like this two-faced.
These verses indicate that the miser's meal is not going to turn out well. And in the end, the meal and the kind words that you said are all for nothing.
APPLICATION
There are a couple of big takeaways from this passage.
The first is that the consistent thoughts of our hearts are what define us. As we think in our hearts, so are we. And that principle can be used for good as we put God's Word in our hearts. It can bring about good things in our lives. Even though our verses for today have a negative slant, the principle can be used for good. Consistently thinking good, godly thoughts will produce a good harvest in our lives.
The second takeaway is that we need discernment. We need to listen to the nudges of our heart when someone is saying nice things but we are sensing something else is going on. I am not advocating being suspicious of everyone, but the less we know a person, the more discernment is needed.
PRAYER
Lord, may my words and my heart line up for good. And grant me discernment that I don't get swept away with nice words.