Their Needs

DEVOTION
EPHESIANS
THEIR NEEDS
Eph 4:29-30
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
NIV
Here again is that need of my fellow believer that I am to have a part in building them up instead of tearing them down. What does puzzle me a bit is the point that perhaps each of those believers has a different need. That would also include me. I need to be built up as well and thus someone of ones have the responsibility to speak words to me which built me up instead of tearing me down. That unwholesome talk is what has to be which tears people down such as gossip or just unkind words. I know I have been guilty of unkind words and I am remorseful regarding that. I have to do better at being sensitive to the Holy Spirit in regards to my words. But it is not just the words, because they are the result of the heart. My attitude at times simply stinks. Why is that? What causes me to get into that frame of mind? Certainly I cannot blame someone else for my attitude. Maybe it is just that, my attitude. Maybe it is because I am thinking about me rather than thinking about meeting the needs of others with my heart. If I am thinking about them more than me, then as a result my words will help build them up according to their needs. It is difficult not thinking about my needs sometimes. I suppose that is ok, but surely it is not if that is all I think about. Then again if I am responsibly for verbalizing that which is helpful to others, they surely have that responsibility toward me. It would be a mutual building up affair and all would benefit from the words spoken to each other. Yet, I cannot help think at this time it is me who must make the check up from my neck up. I must be the one who yields my attitude to the Holy Spirit so he can do the work in me which needs to be done. Then I can and will be able to have the right attitude toward others and in fact be able to speak words which build them up and they will benefit because it will be according to their needs. The Holy Spirit is truly the only one who really knows their needs anyway. So this is the key for me to be the man of God I need to be. Listen to his still small voice then I will be able to speak words which build them up according to their needs.