We can speak words of encouragement, threatening words, loving words, condemning words. The words we should speak are like those our MESSIAH spoke when He walked on the earth.
Emotional words come out of our mouths. Whether they are from happy feelings, angry ones, hurtful ones, loving ones, or hate-filled feelings, our emotions evoke words that reveal how we feel at any given moment.
James, the brother of JESUS, understood the power of spoken words. It is recorded in the book of James chapter 3 verse 6: …..”The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity”… “it defileth the whole body.” Verses 7 and 8 say, “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea” have been tamed by man. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
This is a dreadful thought to me for it calls to mind the threatening words I once spoke to my daughter, Joy, when she was a teenager. Not only had I falsely accused her of an action but I had threatened her life. It was because of my rage and my fear that such ugliness had come out of my mouth. Because of my words her spirit had been wounded. Later I felt so ashamed. I confessed my sin to the LORD and asked for forgiveness and also asked forgiveness from my daughter. Thinking about it today brings me to tears. The damage had been done. I couldn’t take it back.
The following example is a story I heard long ago: Two children were having fun outdoors, pelting each other with pillows. The pillow fabric couldn’t withstand the abuse. With one good hit of the opponent’s pillow, the fabric gave out resulting in a huge rip. The children grew quiet as feathers drifted in all directions. Some feathers were carried away on the breeze. The parent who had been watching realized this was a good opportunity for the children to learn a valuable lesson about words. The parent instructed the children to pick up all of the feathers and put them back inside the pillow. They gave it a valiant try but soon found it was impossible and bemoaned the fact to their parent. Lovingly, they were told it was the same way with words. When hurtful words are spoken, you can never take them back. You can ask for forgiveness but the damage has been done.
