Truthful Tuesday: The Gift of Gab - Blessing or Cursing? - Denise Pass
Inspirational Thought of the Day:
Choose words carefully, for each one can affect the destiny of another.
Scriptures of the Day:
Exodus 20:7
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain.”
Psalm 10:4, 7
4 “The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks,“God won’t hold me accountable; he doesn’t care. 7 His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; his tongue injures and destroys.”
Proverbs 15:2,4
2 “The tongue of the wise treats knowledge correctly, but the mouth of the fool spouts out folly. 4 Speech that heals is like a life-giving tree, but a perverse tongue breaks the spirit.”
Matthew 12:36-37
36 I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 15:11
“What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”
Ephesians 4:29
“You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 5:4
4 “Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting–all of which are out of character–but rather thanksgiving.”
Colossians 3:8
“But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth.”
James 1:26
“If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.”
James 3:10
“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters.”
I know what you are thinking – with the litany of Scriptures I have on speaking blessing instead of cursing that a mighty sermon is coming. 🙂
Well, not really. I hope today’s post will be an encouragement and a reminder of how God wants us to communicate and the sheer joy of it all. And I figured we could use some reminders from God’s word in case anyone tries to rationalize cursing, gossiping or speaking ill of another person as ever being ok.
Words are amazing. They can really encourage or discourage another person on toward greatness, apathy or destruction. It is such a gift to be able to communicate to another person, to praise our Creator or cheer someone on. Sometimes we forget that it is indeed a gift.
Sometimes my heart is so full of joy it could burst. This happens often when I am reading God’s word and culminates in tears flowing, full of gratitude as all I can mouth are the words, “thank you, God”!
With so many words in the human language, it would seem we have a lot of terms in our arsenal to be able to effectively communicate, but alas, words often cannot convey fully what our heart really intends.
Sometimes there are no words that could fully express the soul’s joy, ire or sorrow. It is in those times that my spirit cries out to the living God and I know He understands, even though I have not spoken a word.
With such a tremendous privilege of speaking and writing, it would seem we would have a God-given purpose in it. If ultimately every word is known by God before it is even spoken, wisdom encourages us to carefully consider each one.
He made us to communicate with Himself and with others for the purpose of edification, fellowship and loving one another. But sometimes communication is hard. Sometimes it seems impossible to say anything edifying when our hearts are hurt. Perhaps we shouldn’t in those moments.
One thing I know God did not intend is for us to misuse the gift of language. Like every tool or thing in creation has a God-given purpose, so does our language.
Today it seems there is a carelessness to our communication. Almost like a knee jerk response, we can spew something out of our mouths that brings no glory to God and does not benefit those who listen. Curse words are in most movies, television, music – even spoken by those who profess Christ. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
People who mistakenly profess freedom in Christ yet let vile words flow out of their mouths at whim are deceived. They claim that people are judgmental or perhaps not “enlightened” or legalistic if they would say that cursing is wrong. Hmmm. Maybe a Top 10 David Letterman style list will help here . . .
Top Ten Reasons People Curse, Gossip, Slander, or Speak unkindly:
- The person does not fear God or believe His Word when God commands us to bless and not curse.
- The person is not respecting their audience and wants to use words to hurt.
- The person is not respecting themselves and is insecure.
- The person lacks intelligence, using the same word repetitively which does not mean what they think it means. :0)
- The person has forgotten why they are given the gift of communicating.
- The person thinks they are cool? No, probably not.
- The person lacks self control and is led by emotions rather than reason.
- The person is deceived and does not think cursing is a sin.
- The person did not receive a good education.
- The person wants to be part of our culture – they want to conform to society and their brain rewards them for such behavior (contributed by one of my daughters).
The point is, there is no valid excuse for cursing ever. Nada. Never. We can choose not to let them fly out of the mouth. If we will remember the original purpose of words, perhaps we will consider how to spur one another on and glorify God. We don’t know how long we will be able to tell the people in our lives how much we love and cherish them. Use words to bless, heal, minister and spread God’s Word – it never returns void and reverberates throughout all eternity.
LORD, thank You for giving us the ability to share with others our innermost thoughts. Please grant us grace to speak love and grace to those around us and to overcome the temptation to “vent” when we are hurt.
