Words Matter

…the speech of the upright rescues them. Proverbs 12:6

I love this part of today’s verse, but in order to get the whole picture, here’s the first part: “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.”

All week I’ve been exploring the words my mouth speaks and how those very words can affect the world around me and even my own life. As I began to go back and look at the first part of Proverbs 12:6, it felt like the main character was in a danger of some sort and the words he spoke might get him out of trouble.

Was he crying out to God, saying something clever, speaking some encouragements or truth? One thing I do know is that he wasn’t stirring his foe to anger. He wasn’t badmouthing his foe or arguing. That would have simply quickened his death.

What is it about words that are so powerful they can save my life, whether it is truly a dangerous situation or just a tense moment with another fellow human being? The words I speak must be carefully thought through.

Words matter!

This week I learned in my circumstances that we all have moments of feeling blue. In these desperate moments in which I need to find safety and am ‘depressed,’ what comes out of my mouth to encourage others can turn around to comfort and rescue me.

What may have begun as hurt or embarrassment can change into joy and experiencing God on a level not known before, because I focus my ‘self‘ and my words on Him and not on my frustrating circumstances. I act and speak as if I was His ambassador.

God is the giver of all things, yet ‘I’ am responsible for what comes out of my mouth. There are many things about me that I cannot change, but I can affect more outcomes of my life than I realize.

Sometimes I force myself into self-control that helps me NOT to say what I wish I could say, and other times the situation calls for me to muster up the courage to speak what needs to be said (in careful, thought-out words).

Either way, my soul is changed dramatically when I go against what my flesh wants to do and follow the Lord instead.

Perhaps we all, at times, can become too self-absorbed in always thinking about the inner things of our hearts. Yet, I’m the one who lives in this body and in this mind. If I don’t attend to my ‘self,’ I will not have anything left to promote an outward perspective that gives to others.

I am learning how to speak good things that bless people, not so that it will bless me too. That is just a side effect of righteous speech. Today’s verse is about the great natural consequences of speaking good things.

Father, put on my tongue: kindness and truth in love. Help me to take seriously the fact that my words make a difference, whether they are positive or negative, gracious or selfish or generous or stingy. In heated moments of irritation, help me to value the people you put in my life and promote what is good for them through what I say. In Jesus name, Amen.