“For it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” - Luke 6:45

One of the baptismal promises in the Book of Common Prayer is to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ” (Book of Common Prayer 1979, 293). But for most of us, gospel proclamation does not bubble up on its own. How do we go from silence to declaring the good news to others? We may try to muscle through, working up the courage to invite our coworkers to church or to speak an encouraging word to another. Other times, perhaps, we have felt guilty for not sharing the good news. But grace doesn’t give way to works when it comes to evangelism: we are not called to guilt. It may simply be that despite our desire to proclaim the good news, we haven’t yet uncovered the power to speak.

In Luke 6:45, as Jesus taught the people, he said, “It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” Jesus was saying that there is a direct connection between what overflows our hearts and what flows out of our mouths. Whatever happens in our hearts will soon be upon our tongues. This has everything to do with proclaiming the good news to other people. Sharing the gospel does not begin with our mouths, but with our hearts. Our first work is heart work: the first place we must proclaim the gospel is to our own hearts.

It may seem counterintuitive to go inward when working toward proclaiming the gospel outward. But following Jesus’ words, if we want the good news on our lips, we need the good news in the “abundance of our hearts.” So we are called to proclaim to our own hearts. In the morning when we wake, when we go about our daily work, when we sit to eat, when we relax and play, and at last when we lay down to sleep: at all times we proclaim to ourselves the good news of God in Christ. We speak the words that make our hearts come alive.

The good news enlivens our hearts, because the word we are proclaiming is that Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, that the life he lived and still lives for God is our life, and that the love shared between the Father and the Son is now the love we share with God and one another. In Christ, we receive every spiritual blessing from the Father (Ephesians 1:3). When our hearts become aware of the blessedness we have in Jesu, they will burst forth in shouting, singing, going, doing, and in all ways proclaiming the good news of God in Christ. For the good news is as much for us as for others, and when we abide in it we cannot help but make our lives a proclamation.