The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. [Proverbs 18:21 (NLT)]
With their words, the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous. … Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. [Proverbs 11:9,11 (NLT)]
When writing about nitroglycerin recently, I realized there’s something else in our lives much like this strange chemical that is both helpful and harmful. Like nitroglycerin, man’s capabilities are a dichotomy between good and evil, constructive and destructive, and beneficial or detrimental. The same mind capable of creating a vaccine that saves thousands of lives is capable of creating a nuclear bomb that can take those lives. James speaks of this incongruity when writing about the way we use our words, “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people, whom God made like himself. Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” [3:9-10]
While most of us have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and can’t annihilate a city with the push of a button, we can destroy one life at a time with our words! Like dynamite, our words can cause an explosion that produces major destruction. We can quash ambition with disparaging and demeaning remarks. We can shoot down someone with censure, condemnation, and blame. While we’d never think of physically harming a person, with a few words, we can wound an ego and tear open old wounds. We’d never murder anyone but we certainly can manage to kill someone’s hopes and dreams. We wouldn’t think of destroying a person’s home, yet we can demolish their reputation and even their career with just a few words! Ridicule and shaming can collapse self-esteem faster than an arrow can deflate a helium balloon. Our words, like nitroglycerin, can be devastating weapons.
Nevertheless, like medical nitroglycerin, our words also can help. Words of love, comfort, forgiveness, encouragement, respect, or sympathy can lift burdens and defuse situations better than any bomb squad. It is our choice as to whether we crush or nurture, rend or mend, stifle or encourage. My mother used to tell me, “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all!” Sometimes that’s easier said than done! There are times my prayer is simply that God will put his arm around my shoulder and place His hand across my mouth!
Father, forgive us for our thoughtless and often cruel words. Guide us to use our tongues with wisdom and love; show us how to heal, not harm. Let our words be ones of encouragement and support. Rather than destroyers, show us how to be builders; rather than combatants, let us be peacemakers; and rather than adversaries, let us be advocates.
Only speak words that make a heart grow stronger. [Ann Voskamp]
Aaron’s four sons were priests and, in Leviticus 10, his oldest sons Nadab and Abihu offer incense to God in the Tabernacle. The incense symbolized the people’s prayers rising up to God and the coals used for burning it were to be taken from the altar of burnt offerings outside the sanctuary. Although priests were required to fulfill their duties precisely, Scripture tells us the two offered “strange” or “unauthorized” fire and were immediately consumed by fire from God!
Because the literacy rate in the 1st century was around 10 to 15%, only a few people could read the Hebrew Scriptures or Apostolic letters. By necessity, the new faith came about through public reading and preaching. In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul warned of a time when sound doctrine would no longer be tolerated. Rather than reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and instruction, people would want to have their itching ears knéthó (meaning tickled or scratched). Rather than knowledge and doctrine, they’d be more interested in myths, sensationalism, and viewpoints suiting their desires. I fear that time has come!
I began my prayer with the words of John Baille found in A Diary of Private Prayer. He opened the prayer by praising the “Lord and Maker of all things” for things like “the life that stirs within me” and “the bright and beautiful world around me.” But it was the inclusion of “all you have given me to fill my hours of leisure…music and books and good company and all the harmless and delightful pleasures” that gave me pause. How often do we offer praise and thanksgiving for “leisure” and the “delightful pleasures” of life? Do we regularly praise and thank Him for the taste of strawberries, the scent of lilacs, the joy of making love, napping in a hammock on a summer day, enjoying a latte and a fresh-baked almond croissant, completing a sudoku or crossword puzzle, a good workout at the gym, a game of mahjong or golf with friends, snuggling on the sofa with the cat, eating s’mores around a campfire, playing Crazy 8’s or Uno with the kids, binge watching Netflix on a rainy day, or warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream? Each of us has our favorite leisure activities and sources of pleasure and yet pleasure is not one of the words typically associated with Christian belief. In fact, many consider pleasures to be the devil’s tool used to keep us from a godly life!
When the nation of Israel was established, God said He’d be their king. But the people wanted an earthy king like the nations surrounding them so Saul became king. Samuel told Israel that, as long as they and their king walked with God, all would go well for the nation. Reminding the people to remember all the wonderful things God did for them, Samuel cautioned Israel. If they persisted in rebellion and disobedience, there would be serious trouble: they and their king would be banished (a prophecy of their eventual exile).
“Chocolate comes from cacao beans. Beans are vegetables. Salads are made of vegetables. Therefore, chocolate is a salad!” said the sign in the bakery. “I like their logic!” I thought. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight you probably know the loopholes used by dieters. Broken cookies have no calories because they fell out when the cookies broke, anything eaten with a diet soda is calorie-free, and food eaten off someone else’s plate doesn’t count because the original calories belong to them! Technically, anything licked off a spoon while preparing food isn’t eating; it’s cooking! Furthermore, if you’re eating with someone else, you’ve kept to your diet if the other person consumes more than you! As a once struggling dieter, I know all the excuses to justify over indulging. The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves and, unfortunately, most of them aren’t as silly as these.
Devotions of the Heart 