To any of you that know me IRL and to those of you who have ventured through 4 years of blogs, you may know that the power of the tongue is something I feel very strongly about. I am often invited to speak on that subject alone and it's one that just gets my goat when people fly off at the mouth with no regard to consequences of what they are saying.
Isn't it amazing that a subject that I "know" so well, even in my pride of thinking "I know all there is to know on this subject", that the all knowing One... knows that you need a new lesson & a maybe a less than gentle reminder to guard your heart because out of it's abundance is what comes out of your mouth.
"You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It's your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation." Matthew 12:34-37 (The Message)
I am a participant in a women's bible study (I am not leading... and I am more than okay with that) and for the past week of our study we have been doing some expository digging into key scriptures that deal with our words. As I went through my lesson there was a few scriptures that really spoke to me but I really wanted to share one in particular.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32 NIV
I also like the more "wordy" Amplified version of this verse:
Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin). Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.
As I looked at that verse it seemed to really makes sense to me. There is a process there.
1. Don't let anything foul or polluted come out of your mouth. The Amplified adds "ever". Ever? Even when someone drives less than desirably in front of me in traffic. I am personally working on this and my new out loud mantra has become "I will be a blesser and not a curser all the days of my life", typically at the top of my lungs.
2. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by holding onto the hurts. I say Tony Nolan speak last week and he gave the example of a boy holding onto a penny, when God wants to trade the penny for a $50 bill. My bitterness, indignation, wrath, resentment, quarreling, slander grieves the Holy Spirit who wants to be my comforter but can't when I am wrapped in a cloak of these things. He literally wants to trade me my pains for his comfort. Seems like a no brainer but has taken me 36 years to even begin to do.
3. Then "And become". As I guard my mouth, as I lay down my Louis Vitton, and trade it for the down comforter of the Holy Spirit, THEN, we get to be useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us.
You can't be tenderhearted with a broken heart, you can't be tenderhearted when you are so full of pain that being tenderhearted would kill you. Tenderhearted comes from reckoning your pain with His and realizing that He took on pain here in this world to deliver us from ours. He didn't come so that we could "cope". Deliverance is achieved through death and resurrection.
Lord, I willingly trade the penny of my pain for the $50 worth of deliverance.
So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. John 8:36
Be a blessing...
Walk in your deliverance.
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