Power of the Tongue
We've all heard the old adage, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me." But is that really true? Here's what the bible says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Proverbs 18:21 (KJV) At creation God spoke and it was good Gen 1. The question is, "What are you saying to yourself.....to others.....to God?" Are you speaking life or death?
There is a barrage of horrible words being spoken all over the place in our society. The truth is that hurt people, hurt people! As Luke 6:45 says, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Ask yourself, "What hurt in my heart needs the healing power of the Holy Spirit, so that I can stop hurting myself, others, and God?"
Almost ten years ago the Lord really encouraged me to stop saying hateful things to myself when I looked in the mirror. I use to say I hated this feature, or that thing about myself. I discovered through Be In Health that what I was saying created a spiritual root of illness that resulted in an autoimmune disease. So, I stopped saying hateful things to myself. I asked God to heal my heart and retrain my thoughts. The outcome is that I've been off the medication for that autoimmune disease for almost ten years, even though I had taken it for almost 30 years!
Not only do our words affect ourselves, but they can positively or negatively affect others too. If a picture is worth a thousand words, than these two pictures below really speak volumes of heartbreaking pain. The first picture says, "Your words have power, use them wisely." The second one says, "Harsh words do hurt! "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Ephesians 4:29 I like how the New Living Translation puts it, "Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them."
The reality is that we all need to learn how to, "Speak the truth in love". Eph 4:15 I grew up in a family where one parent, at times, spoke more like a bulldozer and the other said nothing. That left me confused, sometimes being a verbal bulldozer and sometimes pouting, saying nothing. It has taken me a long time to learn how to come up out of those verbal ditches, where the devil is, and endeavor to "Speak the truth in love".
The truth is that we all need to feel loved and respected. I'm sorry, and I love you are two of the most powerful and healing phrases in the English language. We all need to hear these words, and we all need to hear words of appreciation and affirmation as well.
The picture below beautifully portrays this truth visually. I love it! It's so like God. To me, it looks like God is holding her. "Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." Jeremiah 31:3
Affirming words can feel like an emotional hug. They can help to heal the hurts of our heart. Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
May your words be fitly spoken over yourself, others, and to God so that you will have life and not death. As you do, you will be so blessed, and you will be a blessing to others, and to God too, In Jesus Name!
