May 17, 2010

 What Are You Saying?

What are you saying? Do your words edify and lift up or do they tear down, not just others but yourself?

When you try to figure out what someone else might be thinking or going through is it based on what the Holy Spirit has given you or your own heart? The bible in Matthew 12:34, says, 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. We hear the negative words that are used, the harsh comments, profanity and negativity. Words of judgment and condemnation.

The question I have to ask myself and the question you have to ask yourself is simple, “Will I be a resurrector who lifts up and encourages or will I be a murderer, killing not just myself, but killing others with the things I say?” What are your words saying, are they lifting up or tearing down?

If I am honest with you, which I usually am I would have to tell you that I used to listen to some motivational speakers and preachers and think, oh wow they are so over the top. They kept focusing on the fact that we need to look at things from a positive perspective. It irritated me because it just seemed to unrealistic. Then I reached the point of understanding that all they were really doing was trying to change the way we think about and look at things.

Instead of always seeing the glass as half empty we should see it as half full and instead of complaining use that time to ask God what He wants us to do about it. Being grateful for what we do have instead of focusing on what we don’t have and complaining and nagging about it.

I used to complain to my friend all the time about something that we were doing. Then I realized that instead of complaining what I really needed to do was go to work. If you want to see something different you will need to do something different and all of my complaining was not changing anything.

One of my friends shared how another friend was so overweight and she really wanted to see that person lose the weight. I listened to the way she talked. I heard the bitterness and criticism in her tone and I knew that what she was saying and the way she was saying it was not going to get the results that she was hoping for. If we want people to hear us we are going to have to speak differently. We are going to have to speak the truth, but we are going to have to wait until we have direction from the Lord and speak it in love. Ephesians 4:15 says, 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Sometimes the appropriate thing is to say nothing. We have to learn to follow the leading of The Holy Spirit. There have been times when I felt there was something that needed to be said either through a verbal or written communication.

I have been astounded by the way God shut it down when it was not His will that anything be said at that time. The correcting word that He did not want to come from me because He knew the impact it would have on the recipient and the impact it would have on our relationship. His preference was that we be reconciled and He work out the other issue. God did not want the end result to be what it would have been if those words had been spoken even if they were spoken in love. Thank you God for keeping my mouth shut and for bouncing my e-mail back to me.

I was reading James Chapter 3 and I would encourage us all to read it. It talks about the tongue and the power that such a little vessel has. We need to learn to use ours wisely. Proverbs 18:21 says, 21 Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose. We get to decide how it will be used and what impact it will have. James 3:1-12 says, 1 -2Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.

3 -5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! 5 -6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

7 -10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!  10 -12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

What are you saying? Is your member under control? Are you speaking blessings or curses? Most of us are quick to bless someone else, but we have to learn how to speak blessings over ourselves as well. If we are not speaking the right things, if we are in a place of murdering ourselves and others it is time to change what we are saying.

Evaluate what you are saying out of your mouth are you blessing or cursing,
you cannot do both.

Scripture:
Proverbs 18:21:

 21 Words kill, words give life;
 they're either poison or fruit—you choose.