Autocorrect?

There is a strong chance the majority of you reading this have a smartphone with autocorrect enabled on your texting. Those who us who have this feature can’t live with it, but can’t live without it. For me, it corrects just enough of my typos to make me want to use it, but I’m constantly frustrated with some of the crazy things it tries to say. Unfortunately, many of the words it corrects creates phrases I can’t even write here. And at least once a week, I think, “Why in the world did it think I would want to say that?!” So, as a result, 95% of the time I proofread my texts to be sure I say what I intend to say.

For the Christian, God has a feature we can enable on our mouths at any time that could not possibly be called autocorrect, because it certainly is not at all automatic; rather, He offers us a choice.

Here’s how it works. You are in a conversation and your head (from the flesh) tells your mouth to say something. But in a nanosecond, your heart (from the Spirit) intercepts the thought prior to launch and either says, “Do not speak” or “Here’s a better thing to say than what you are about to spew.” In yet another nanosecond, we then have the choice of responding from the flesh or the Spirit.

Here are three simple ways to enact the “Spirit-correct” feature for our mouths.

1—In the morning, pray for Him to take over your tongue for the entire day. (Maybe around 1:00, re-pray it.)

Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. —1 Corinthians 2:4b NLT

2—Allow a moment to think before speaking. Give the Spirit opportunity.

The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking. —Proverbs 15:28 NLT

3—Focus on the other person (or persons) first, not you, or your agenda, for the conversation.

Let people finish speaking before you try to answer them. —Proverbs 18:13a ERV