Watch Your Mouth!

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 NKJV

James reminds us that the tongue–that little member–holds much power and the only person who controls it–is the person to whom it belongs.

With the tongue we can mend relationships or destroy them forever.

With the tongue we can construct greatness or ignite destruction.

With the tongue we can have peace or chaos.

With the tongue we can create an environment that brings about prosperity or fuel abject poverty.

With the tongue we can speak life–to our bodies and promote healing and wholeness or we can doom ourselves to sickness and disease.

With the tongue–we are responsible for all we say and we must watch what we say because once we say it–we cannot recall words out of the air as easily as we can recall cars that need repair. When we are foolish–we can apologize and ask forgiveness, but it doesn’t take away the sting and hurt of words that linger in the air and in our minds. We must watch our mouths.

When we speak positive things–our words are not often remembered, but the negative things we say, are remembered by others long after we have forgotten what we said.

We have an obligation to ourselves and others to make sure that before we speak, we have prayed and given much thought to how we want our tongues to function. We are to be slow to speak and quick to listen to all God has to say to us and if we listen and obey, we cannot go astray.

Watch your mouth! Think about how words function–to heal or hurt, to spring life or trip to death, the tongue–the tiny member over which we have complete control–must submit to God and only say those things that He says.

We are healed and whole, peacemakers and not peacebreakers, the head and not the tail, providers of those in need and not  manipulators of greed. We are His children, members of a royal priesthood, created to do good, not bad and we shall praise Him for His mighty acts as we live according to His Word so others might see our good works and praise Him,too.

We have shaken off the deeds of darkness and choose to live in the marvelous light of The Lord. We are encouragers to others to live by faith and will not discourage any to live the life God has destined for them.

We are more than conquerors and have victory in Jesus at every turn where the enemy has laid a snare.

We live according to the hope we have in Jesus, not in expectations of mere mortals for they have no power outside of His power to make a positive, lasting, difference in our lives. And we will watch what we say–speaking only as He speaks–so we can obtain what He has already planned for us.

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Think On These Things!

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8 NKJV)

When I look at the reactions of people to hearing “negative reports” about situations and people, I am reminded that the end is truly near. We pulverize people with our negative comments and innuendo without having all the facts about anything. That is truly amazing to me that we–take one sound bite–one tiny misrepresented piece of information–and then blow it all out proportion, condemning people who have not been tried or found guilty of anything other than being foolish. We take sides and give no thought to the lives being ruined and reputations being tarnished–all to appease an apparently innate desire to speak or write without thinking–of the consequences of what we do or say.

Are we so insecure and unhappy that we live to destroy others as a means to entertain ourselves?

Is there nothing else in the world we could think about–solving some problems–rather than creating them?

Without proof of anything other than what we have heard–we loudly proclaim our ignorance when we expect people to defend themselves and provide more fuel for the idiots to consume and spew into cyberspace--becoming obnoxious by the second and still not knowing truth.

Even Paul wrote this centuries ago, there is applicable truth to what he says. Instead of meditating, thinking, and spouting the negatives about people, we need to change our mindset and think–really use our brains and common sense (if such a thing still exists) to logically approach a matter before we become part of the rumor mill spreading lies.

When we don’t know the whole story about anything, our response should be to pray–for all concerned and then wait–until the whole truth is known before we take sides and condemn others for things they may not have done.

Think on the positives, the praiseworthy, the noble, the virtues, the good reports–not those things that become part of character assassination without having full knowledge of a situation.

What we must remember is this–the same judgment we show towards others will come back upon us. Never judge a matter without having all the facts unless we want someone judging us in the same manner.

The truth will set us all free–from lying lips and tongues and character attacks meant to destroy. Remember this–it is Satan’s job to steal, kill and destroy and he uses everyone who is willing to be used as a tool by him.

Think On These Things available on http://www.amazon.com/Mary-M-Hall-Rayford/e/B00BAW31CQ/