“Did You Know Your Heart Was Designed to Overflow—And You Choose What Fills It?”

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“Brood of vipers!  How can you, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.         Matthew 12:34

This verse has echoed in my mind since childhood. I often heard it paraphrased as “out of the heart the mouth speaks,” a simpler version that many of us grew up hearing. While easier to say, this paraphrase skips an important truth: the abundance of the heart is the focus here, not just the heart itself.

Jesus wasn’t speaking in vague terms. He was highlighting that what spills from our mouths reveals the overflow of what’s in our hearts. The word abundance means an overflow, a surplus. Imagine a bucket under a running faucet. As it overflows, it spills its contents everywhere. That’s the image here—our hearts are always overflowing with something. The question is, what are they overflowing with?

I’ve caught myself justifying harsh words spoken in frustration, telling myself, “That’s not who I am; I didn’t mean it.” Maybe you’ve been there too—regretting words spoken in the heat of the moment and hoping they don’t reflect your true self. But Jesus reminds us they do. Our words are a reflection of what’s been filling our hearts. That’s a sobering truth.

I’d love to believe my heart is always full of good things: encouragement, love, and praise to God. Yet, the moments when anger, selfishness, or negativity slip out reveal otherwise. Those words didn’t appear out of thin air—they came from somewhere within.

God created our hearts to overflow, but His intention was for them to overflow with Him—His love, His peace, His Word. When our hearts are filled with anything else, it’s time to pause and ask why. What have we been allowing to fill the space that belongs to God?

The reality is that we covet what we value most. If we’re filling our lives with distractions, worldly desires, or bitterness, those things will eventually spill out. But when we covet God—His presence, His Word, His ways—that abundance becomes evident in the words we speak and the fruit we bear.

God designed our hearts to be vessels of overflow! Can you believe that? GOD CREATED OUR HEARTS TO HOLD AN OVERFLOW! But not just any overflow—the kind He intended is filled with Him: His love, His peace, His thoughts, and His likeness. What an incredible design!

Paul’s words in Ephesians 5:1-4 challenge us to walk as imitators of God, allowing love and gratitude to define our lives while rejecting anything unworthy of His calling. I love how Paul calls our lives a “sweet-smelling aroma” to God. I often pray that everything I do will rise to Him as a pleasing fragrance, glorifying Him.

Living this out requires remaining in Christ. John 15:7-8 tells us that abiding in Him and letting His Word abide in us will result in abundant fruit, glorifying the Father and marking us as disciples of Jesus. It’s not about striving to be perfect; it’s about staying connected to the source of life so His abundance naturally overflows from our hearts.

But what happens when God reveals areas in our hearts that aren’t reflecting Him? When we pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart… see if there is any wicked way in me” (Psalm 139:23-24), He answers. He gently pulls back the layers, exposing the ugliness we didn’t even know was there. It’s humbling, even painful, but it’s also an opportunity for healing and transformation.

I’ve had moments this year when God revealed things in my heart that I didn’t want to see—things that made me feel ashamed or even disgusted. Yet, His grace met me there. God doesn’t expose the brokenness in our hearts to condemn us but to cleanse us, to fill us with His Spirit, and to make us more like Him.

Still, it’s not instant. It’s a process, one that requires our cooperation. We must choose to lay our hearts before God daily, to remain in His Word, and to allow Him to do the deep cleaning. Like weight loss, there’s no shortcut—it takes time, commitment, and trust in the process.

Friend, if you’re struggling with words or actions that don’t reflect Christ, don’t ignore them. Ask God to show you what’s in your heart. He will—and He’ll meet you with grace and a loving invitation to let Him fill you anew.

Let’s commit to being vessels overflowing with His love, His Word, and His Spirit so that everything we say and do points others to Him.

With love and blessings,
Kingdom Daughter