Stop Talking About It and Start Doing It
by Rick Warren — May 28, 2024
From Shaped to Make a Difference
“Hard work is worthwhile, but empty talk will make you poor.”
Proverbs 14:23 (CEV)
What you say has a direct connection to your heart.
Whatever your heart is filled with is going to come out of your mouth. If you’re filled with anger, anger is going to come out of your mouth. If your heart is filled with depression, it’s going to come out of your mouth. If your heart is filled with joy, that’s going to come out of your mouth.
The Bible says in Mark 12:30, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (NLT). You could also say it like this: Love God with all your talk, all your feelings, all your thinking, and all your acting. God shaped you to primarily be a talker, feeler, thinker, or doer.
Heart people have a hard time being quiet. They’re talkers. When you’re a heart person, you’ve got to let it out. You’ve got to tell other people. Heart people love to tell stories. They love to sit and converse, especially in heart-to-heart conversations.
The world needs people who are communicators. We need people who can lead discussions and who can verbalize what the rest of us feel. We need teachers, counselors, and coaches who can teach us and direct us. We need comedians. We need preachers. We need all of these people who are built on verbal skills and who are able to move the world forward.
God’s warning for talkers is this: You also have to act. Proverbs 14:23 says, “Hard work is worthwhile, but empty talk will make you poor” (CEV). In other words, you’ve got to move ahead. You’ve got to stop only talking about your plans and start making them happen.
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