Watch your mouth! What are
you saying? In His Word 5-8-17
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech
be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to
answer every man. Colossians
4:5-6
The Word of God tells us that
death and life are in the power of the tongue; so we should watch our mouths!
Death
and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the
fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21
Sure we mostly hear these
scriptures when referring to bad words we should not say and even gossip but
what about the good things?
What about those good and
perfect words we speak, right, I know we do not have perfect words come out of
our mouth most of the time. Occasionally though we can figure it out and
present ourselves with words that mean something or inspire something good in
the person we are talking to.
We know that we are
supposed to speak the truth in love, and sometimes when we talk its not so
loving. We get caught up in the moment and yell at one another, or grumble and
complain to ourselves; but is it really to ourselves? God is with us wherever
we go. We have taught this to children in Sunday school class all the time but
like many childhood lessons we adults tend to forget what we are supposed to do
is act out the truth. In other words we need to behave like a Christian. We
need to walk the walk that we believe is the inspired Word of God. Which means
if we are shouting or grumbling, we are not doing what God wants. We need to
remember that truth that Jesus is with us and will never leave us nor forsake
us and as such He is there when we choose to do the wrong thing we are dragging
Him into it with us.
“Gee, that’s a heavy thing
for a Monday morning Teresa! Do you mean we have to think before we speak?”
I
laugh at myself because I have one of those brains that forgets to send the
‘all stop’ notice and my mouth goes on rambling by itself sometimes. I love to
speak, and since it is my calling to “Speak and to teach and to preach to all people
of all walks of life and all ages...” well it is not always a bad thing that I
love to talk! What is not good is when I allow my mouth to run off without my
brain. I mean that is a silly thought,
but when we ramble sometimes it can take on a whole different conversation than
what we started with if we do not keep our mouths in check.
We have to keep focused on
the topic at hand and be sure and remind ourselves that we are always in the
presence of the Lord.
God gave us mouths, and He
gave us words to speak, so just as we have been given purpose in life our
bodies, our mouths have a purpose to follow a well. We need to remember to do
the work of an evangelist; if that is our calling. Use our mouth for good not
harm; no matter what we are talking about or whom we are speaking to we need to
remember that we are to walk as Jesus walked and let our speech be as
appropriate as it can be so that someone around us who hears will not have
cause for stumbling.
Our words can be a
stumbling block for someone, they can even cause someone to fall off a cliff in
life and be damaged for life. A simple word spoken correctly can change their
lives for good, a poorly spoken word can cause someone to give up on life and
God all together.
And he gave
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors
and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come
in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in
love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Ephesians
4:11-16
It is true that what we put in our minds is what will come out of
our mouth, even if we try to leave our brains at the door.
If you are watching shows that cuss a lot, do not be so surprised
when you cuss. If you are watching a show that makes you lust after the flesh,
don’t be so surprised when you start thinking indecent thoughts. What you put
in your mind is what will come out of your mouth.
It works both ways, good and bad go in, the more you put in that
is good stuff the more good stuff that comes out of your mouth.
I can say when I am in ‘writer mode’ thinking of the Word of God
and how to best portray the ideas it gives me I am thinking with a much more
pure heart and mind. But when I go out into the world from here and open my
mind and ears up to the harmful words of the world I am often not as calm. But
when I am in the Word more, the more I am the calmer I am in situations I
cannot control but try to.
This I say
therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past
feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness
with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye
have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:17-24
So
if we have put on the new man, and take the time to read each day as often as
we can and pray each day and as often as we can then we can say we have renewed
our mind. If it is true that we have renewed our mind then we should speak the
clean, fresh words that God has put there for us.
Let’s work
harder to put in the Word and less of the world. Let’s make it our goal this
week to pay attention to what words are around us and what words come out of
our mouths. Then add in more Bible Words and see what happens with how we
conquer the battle of the tongue.
Dear Heavenly Father, help
us to keep our hearts and minds clean with Your Word and prayer, help us to
listen to the right things when we go out into the world each day and to keep
our focus pure and on Your purpose for our lives, in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested reading:
Ephesians 4:1-32, Philippians 3:1-21, Romans 15:1-33, and 2 Corinthians 4:1-14