How can I control my tongue?
Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. I talk
about faith in Christ and how to live a life of dominion over all things. Thank
you so much for being here, I appreciate you. So on September 20th,
my blog will be 1-year-old. Oh my goodness, it is unbelievable, right? Yes, I
know! One whole year of weekly blog posts, I think I am ready to be an author.
If I can write 53 different topics, I can write anything through Christ who strengthens
me. To celebrate the one-year anniversary, I will be hosting a giveaway. If you
have any ideas of people I can collaborate with to make this giveaway
successful, please leave a comment below. I love you and I look forward to a
greater dimension of sharing the gospel.
So as you can tell by the topic, I am talking
your tongue. Yes, that small part of your body that is capable of causing world
wars, damaging lives and causing havoc. We shall be looking at different
scriptures today to help put into perspective the importance of controlling your
mouth.
Proverbs 21:23 (TPT) Watch your words and be
careful what you say, and you’ll be surprised how few troubles you’ll have.
How many times have you said something and
automatically regretted it? That oops moment that you begin to wish you can
rewind to 10 seconds before you messed up? I have and I am still learning. If
you trace back to see all the times you entered trouble with a person, you can
trace it back to the words that you released 9 out of 10 times. There is a time for everything and this
applies to our speech as well. It is completely okay not to have anything to say
in certain situations. Sometimes, the holy spirit instructs us to be quiet but
this thing called flesh tries to take over. Remember your flesh was crucified
with Christ, don’t give it power that it doesn’t have legally (Galatians 5:24).
Proverbs 18:20-21 (TLB) Ability to give wise advice
satisfies like a good meal! 21 Those who love to talk will suffer the
consequences. Men have died for saying the wrong thing!
The end of the above verse shows how powerful
the tongue is. For each time you have an opportunity to release words, you have
a choice to make. You can either choose to build someone up with your words or
tear them down. It even applies to what you say to and about yourself. Are you
a person that finds comfort in saying demoralizing things about yourself? E.g. “I
am so stupid”, “I always mess up”, “I never get it right” etc. If someone tries
to caution you, you may reply with “It is not that deep”. Honestly, it is that
deep. Like one of my pastors once said; “What gives your life meaning is that
which comes out of your mouth; Your life doesn’t give your mouth direction but
your mouth gives your life direction”.
Matthew 21:19 (AMP) Seeing a lone fig tree at the
roadside, He went to it and found nothing but leaves on it, and He said to it,
“Never again will fruit come from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll notice
that I always tell us we are exactly like Christ in this world (1 John 4:17). Everything Christ
did, is what we have been empowered to do. If Jesus can use His mouth to
control the destiny of a fig tree, we can use our mouth to control anything. I
don’t joke with daily confessions and affirmations because I know who I am in
Christ and how powerful my words are. And I have also become very conscious of
speaking idle words because I know that nothing I say is a joke. You have to be
so conscious of every word you let out as a believer, speak life to the people
around you. Even when you are provoked, choose to be quiet or speak life. You’re
that powerful!
James did a great job in illustrating the power
of the tongue in James 3:1-14.
James 3:1-16 The Message (MSG)
When You Open Your
Mouth
1-2 Don’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.
3-5 A
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!
5-6 It 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.
7-10 This 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!
10-12 My 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?
Oh, how powerful the tiny tongue is! It's so unbelievable.
John 6:63-70 (KJV) It is the spirit that
quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Every word that comes out of our mouth is
spirit and is alive. If you sit down and create a list of how many life-giving
words versus death giving words you speak to yourself and people around you,
what will the list look like? Even when things are not going the way you
desire, don’t stop speaking life into every situation. Christ is your
atmosphere, let Him influence the words that you speak. You may not feel like
it every day but choose to speak life. Call things forth from all corners of
the world, speak to that illness in your body. Just keep speaking life, don’t
stop! Don’t get tired! (Romans 4:17)
I really pray that this post has been helpful
to someone. As believers, we should be known as the encourager in our circles. The
pastor is not the only one tasked with encouraging brethren, you play a role as
well. I know how tempting it can be to talk about people behind their back, don’t!
In reality, you should discourage that kind of behaviour when people do it around
you. You are a light bearer; you’ve been set apart. Let people feel uncomfortable
to talk badly about others around you. Don’t be ashamed to shut gossip and
unwholesome talk down around you. It may feel pretentious to always speak good about
people but it is your reality in Christ. Do it until it becomes your normal. Remember what I talked about last
week, viewing
people through the lens of Christ? Here is a practical way to apply it to real life.
Rather than focus on all the many things that
are not going right in your life, stay firm on God’s promises. Your life
experiences do not define you, your only definition is in Christ. Your past,
your personality, your temperament or “horoscope” does not define who you are.
As a believer, in Christ, you live and move and have your being (Acts
17:28). Focus on God’s promises in Christ that are yes and Amen (2
Corinthians 1:20)! Situations may change but God’s word remains infallible.
This brings us to the end of the post today,
thanks for hanging out with me. I love you.
“Sometimes you have to decide which will hurt
more: biting your tongue or having your say. - Faydra D. Fields”
With love,
Bibi
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