What Do You Say?

       For the past couple of weeks the Lord has been convicting me about how many times I say things that don't need to be said, and then don't say what needs to be said. A couple of months ago the Lord impressed this on me also, and I studied the Bible writing down all the verses that had anything to do with the tongue. I also highlighted them in my Bible for easy reference, and memorized a lot of them too. But sadly as time went by it was so easy to let the bad and unpleasant habit sneak back into my life without realizing it. Until during my devotions confessing my sins, it was like the Lord played a recorder back about the things I said that had hurt people, and times I missed the opportunity to encourage someone. As the song says this Christian life is truly a battlefield that we must fight each day. Enemies so easily and quickly show up and sometimes we recognize them, other times not until it has consumed us. Sure hope I'm not alone!  I have a horrible habit to come back with a stinging remark faster than I can think about it before I say it, this makes trying to control my words 10x's more difficult. So I am back once again in the Bible studying it to re-learn how to use my tongue/words right. I will share some of the things I have learned, for those who may also have problems controlling their tongue.

Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." The Lord is telling us there are 2 completely different outcomes that can come just by the use of our words. Whichever one you love, will determine what you produce in your life. We have the power to uplift someone or to completely destroy them with what we allow to come out of our lips.

* DEATH *
      When negative things come out of our mouth or others mouths it is a good indication of what the heart is like. Proverbs 17:20 "He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief." So we must take special precaution to check the temperature of our hearts constantly because without realizing it the devil will plant seeds of bitterness, jealousy, discouragement and other sins that will begin to grow and make our heart sick. Before long that will come out in our words to others. The devil is so smart and knows in what area we are the weakest. 1 Peter "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." If you find yourself in this predicament you must go to God and confess sin your life.
       Stay away from those with negative attitudes. There's nothing wrong with speaking to them occasionally, but if you spend time with negative people you will become like them. 1 Corinthians 15:33 "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." Do not be fooled into thinking that you can handle someone who is negative or has a bad spirit, the Lord tells you you cannot! Before long you will be just like them!
       Realize your flesh enjoys saying negative things. Psalm 52: 2,4 "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue." I hate to hurt someone and will go through great lengths to avoid disappointing or hurting someone, but in a split second I will say an unkind word. Why? Because our tongues LOVE saying words that devour someone. We must be oh so careful! Do not be the reason someone goes home and cries, or leaves your presence feeling worse than when they came! This definitely should not be said of a child of God, the one who was showed the greatest love that anyone could ever show to you!

* LIFE *
    This is the most rewarding one, you can make someones day simply by saying the right thing. Proverbs 31:26 "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness." Do you open your mouth with wisdom and kindness? Or does it depend on what mood you are in?
    We keep ourselves out of trouble by controlling our tongues. Proverbs 21:23  "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles." We could all use help staying out of trouble!
     Spreading the gospel with your tongue is the best thing you can do. How often do we use our tongue to tell others of Jesus? Proverbs 15:4 "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit." You can be a tree of life to others, spreading encouraging words everywhere you go! Do others know by your words that you are encouraging, so when they have no one else to talk to they know they can call you because you will encourage them in the Lord? You can remind others just how good God is! We certainly could talk all day about how good God is to us!
     Proverbs 12:18 "There is he that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." We have the power to pierce someone with our words, or to promote the health of someones soul. This is obvious but the more we use our tongue to say something kind to someone the less time we have to hurt them with our words. You have the power to say just the right thing to brighten someones day! Proverbs 25:11 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

James 3:8 "But the tongue a can NO MAN tame; it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison."

The key to controlling our words is to realize who is controlling US! Is it your flesh or is it the Holy Spirit? Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, we will go by our nature which will produce nothing but sadness in us and those around us! We on our own cannot control our words, ONLY through the Holy Spirit will we accomplish this! There is quite a bit of scripture in this post, but the best place you can ever go when you are struggling with something is to go to God's Word and find what He says about it. I have really only given a very small amount of the verses that are in the Bible concerning the tongue. The Lord has SO much to say on the tongue, it would be wise to study and apply them in our lives. This is a daily battle with me, it is so easy to say what we feel; but we must retrain our tongue to say the things that will encourage others.Through the Holy Spirit we can hold our own in this tough battle! :)