Siblings
Have you ever stopped to marvel at God’s creativity when looking at your reflection? How each part of our body is strategically located in relation to its function. Some of us may not have stopped to appreciate the wonder of God’s Creation that is us, as we are more prone to complain about what is wrong. And while we will look at that with Today’s Holy Nougat, I urge us right now to remind ourselves that we (you and me) are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that right well (Psalm 139:14). Perhaps we’ll look at that soon.
James 3:2, 6 NLT
“Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.”
Taming our Tongues
Siblings, I kid you not – I was minding my business and winding down from the happenings of the day, then God brought a conversation from wells ago back to memory. It was funny – everyone took it in good spirits – and I’d forgotten about it.
But when God brought the moment back to memory, and presented Proverbs 18:21 to me – Death and Life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits– it didn’t seem so funny anymore. And the New Living Translation puts it in stark reality: The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. I replayed the conversation in my mind, calculating the potential impact of those potent words. Words spoken in jest. The Sum was not positive in my favor. The balance was potentially negative.
I awakened from the haze of spiritual slumber that seemed to have overtaken me when I was laughing that day. I was thankful that the damage seemed to be contained primarily to myself … then I found myself thinking, ’what other times have I spoken (prophesied) over my life, and failed to realize that that’s what I had done?’ Like when I kept telling folks about my tech-phobia … and it didn’t feel like I was speaking life into tech challenges; it was my reality – or was it? Something that happens once or twice isn’t even a pattern; but if I claim it as such, I give life to the possibility.
How about you? Are you now scrolling back to past conversations and thinking about illnesses claimed (‘my …’ or ‘I am…’) as though they are owned and accepted? Don’t mishear me, illnesses can and do visit our lives; but they ought not to have ownership of us. Or is God reminding you of words you’ve spoken flippantly or even intentionally over someone else’s life? As I type, I am reminded of ‘dwl’ dying with laughter; we’re not really dying, but it captures … maybe we don’t need to speed up the death process.
Later in the text, James reminds us that the tongue can also offer blessings. It’s not only a source of negativity, curses, and death. If we use our tongues to praise God, then there’s potential for us to speak Life into situations and persons. Yes indeedy! So we can reverse some of what has been spoken by us, over our lives, and/or over others. We do not lose sight of the reality Jesus invites us to consider: that our tongues often reveal what is on our hearts (see Luke 6:45). It says to us that we therefore need to fill our hearts (and minds) with good things, so our tongue will follow suit.
May we all speak life over that which needs to be positive, and cancel (put to death) those things which are not life affirming.
Please Lord, tame our tongues by helping us to focus on You.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
