James 3:5-8
It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! 6 The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person’s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself.
Tongues have destroyed many lives, like the small spark from a carelessly thrown cigarette in a thicket that becomes a huge forest fire that costs governments huge expenses to put out. It could be a word spoken in anger, in the heat of the moment, a word carelessly thrown around without thinking and the damage is done, sometimes its effect being felt for a lifetime especially if those words are spoken to a child.
Proverbs 12:18
“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Sometimes driven by anger and selfishness we are quick to speak without weighing the consequences of our words and in so doing we end up destroying a life, a relationship, a marriage. Especially in this era of social media, we are so quick to forward a juicy story and we don’t bother to verify its validity and even if it is valid, do we have to spread it?
Proverbs 18:21
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”
Out tongues have become weapons, weapons of mass destruction that we walk around with carelessly shooting out words that destroy lives and many times we have no idea the casualties that we leave for dead along our path, because as many of us assume; they are just words anyway. They say “sticks and stones may break my bones by words can never harm me” that is not true because words have destroyed lives and even nations.
Proverbs 26:20 (CEV)
20 Where there is no fuel a fire goes out; where there is no gossip arguments come to an end.
Words have the power to build and also to destroy. If you were to do a word analysis, which side of the pendulum are you inclined to?
Do you always build or destroy?
Are your words always filled with hate and gossip?
Do you always seek the best in others or are you always playing the private detective looking for the filth in others so that you can discredit them?
Only a heart transplant can bring about true lasting change where out tongues are concerned. Allow Jesus to come in and change you from within because remember “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!”
