Christian Living
I started a new job a couple months ago and walked into a total disaster. I have found myself completely discouraged and worn out and saying things like “I am never going to get things cleaned up.” But I am speaking a cursing over my job. I love the work and I am actually really good at it. God tells me “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
I opened my Bible to James 3:5-10 and verse 9-10 really hit me. “With it (tongue) we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness.” Then verse 10 says “out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things brethren, ought not to be.” OUCH!
So I can either speak blessing or cursing on myself. Now why would I want to curse myself and cause misery to my life or someone else? Now one of the first things God brought to mind is that I am on the praise and worship team and I help lead our congregation into His wonderful presence. This is a great honor that God has given me, a gift to do. I love to sing to our heavenly Father about how wonderful and awesome he is. So in verse 9, I praise and worship God with my voice and my mouth and my tongue and with the same things that I worship God, I speak negativity into my own life and also into others.
I try not to do this but this is a battle that the Bible tells us is something that cannot be tamed. In James 3:8, it says, “But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.” So no matter how hard you try to be disciplined, to never speak negativity or hurtful things, it cannot be done. We have to seek the help of our Father and the Holy Spirit to help us in this fight against our tongue.
Has some one ever said something to you that was so hurtful and you will never forget that those words were spoken to you by someone you love? Those words can never be taken back or erased from your memory, right? Well in light of that, what about the words that we speak? Have you ever said something that you wish you never had spoken? Well I can. I want to have kind, loving words come out of my mouth but that is not always the case.
If we understand that this is a battle that we cannot win, and find out what we need to understand about the power of our words and what God says about it, then we can begin to start a lifetime journey of becoming more Christ-like so that our words are His words. The Bible tells us to imitate Jesus. So let’s first take a look at some scriptures on the power of our words then we will look at ways to achieve having success in this area of our life.
Proverbs 18:21 states: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]." Do you want to speak death or life into your life, your family, or friends? The obvious answer would be life, right. Why would you want to speak death into your children? We have to be very careful with our words because we can break our children faster than anyone by negativity. Teach them the words of life. Encourage them that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Sometimes we can get frustrated with the choices that our children make but have you ever sat with your child and talked to them about what really interests them. That child will light up like a light bulb because you are genuinely encouraging them in their interests. But what if they were telling you about something and all you ever said was, “well you can’t do that."
We need to know that if God puts something in our hearts that truly is a vision placed by him then we can do it! Recently I had a conversation with my daughter who is struggling to find out what she really wants to do with her life. What an awesome feeling it was for my little girl to open up to me and just talk about what really interests her. Well it happens that through that conversation that she discovers that she loves photography. At that moment, I could have said, “you can’t make a living taking pictures, what in the world are you thinking?” Or I could say, “God has put this in your heart and you love to take pictures, you are awesome at scrap booking. You need to seek God in what he wants you to do with it and then do it. If he has put this in your heart, then follow Him and He will lead you.” This was the choice I made. The joy and happiness that I saw in her face at that moment was a moment I will never forget. When you have a dream and something you really enjoy doing, which is placed there by God, he will give you the ability to see your dream a reality.
I then talked to her about my vision from God and how excited I get when I talk about it. So do you see the different two ways this conversation could have gone? I could have torn her to bits and pieces by being negative and hurtful by choosing not to be thoughtful of how I responded to that conversation.
Psalms 141:3 says, "Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.” I love this verse and how true it is. We are to be slow to speak and quick to listen. Which requires thinking before we open our mouths and speak life into our children, husbands, families and friends.
Proverbs 15:4 says, "A gentle tongue [with its healing power] is a tree of life, but willful contrariness in it breaks down the spirit." We need to give encouragement and to speak the truth in love and not in spite and hurtful ways. Sometimes saying nothing is better. Then others you need to pray about what needs to be said because we can break someone’s spirit by saying hurtful mean things. I am sure that all of us at one time or another have had something said to us that broke us and hurt us. There are times where you say something and not intentionally hurt someone but we have to be thoughtful in what we say and seek God on how to speak lovingly.
There are many verses that talk about the tongue and the power of words. Jesus came to bring life and to speak life not death. Pray that God will help you be more careful on the words that come out of your mouth. This is a constant struggle that only God can help us with. Do a study and look up verses on tongue and mouth. It is absolutely amazing how many verses there are which tells us that this is an important topic that we need to pay attention to. You will notice throughout scripture that topics that are mentioned over and over require our attention.
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