Out of the same mouth

"Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers (and sisters), this should not be." James 3:10

Luke 6:45 says that the mouth speaks out of the overflow of what is in the heart. So that leads us to consider what is in our heart!!

Recently, well I guess just a week or two ago, while doing a lesson on the power of our words and the tongue in the "Believing God" study by Beth Moore, I was challenged by the following thoughts she expressed, "Ideally, our faith can become voice, and our voice can become power when we're operating in God's will. When we're actively trying to do what God says we can and we don't get the results God's Word says we can expect, we need to ask what might be wrong....What if we are doing everything we know to do and yet what we voice through faith often proves ineffective? Unbelief may not be our primary obstacle on this issue."(p. 116) The goal of this lesson was to "identify and remove hindrances to practicing the powerful voice God's Word tells us we can."(p.116) As some of the misuses of the tongue were listed, the one that jumped off the page to me was "rudeness or unkindness". As I thought on this and considered the ways the misuse of my tongue could hinder me being a vessel God can use to display His power, I realized how often unkind criticism of others in private comes across my lips exhibiting "a misinterpreted sense of superiority" (p.118), and how it effects my attitude toward a person, even if they are said only in the privacy of "me, myself, and I", in my mind, or in the privacy of my own home, as well as affecting the attitude of anyone else that hears those words. "Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,him I will destroy; the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure.(Psalm 101:5); "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." (Ephesians 4:29) After being convicted of this improper use of my words, and confessing to the Lord, I prayed for forgiveness and to be changed to be truly kind in my thoughts, words, and attitudes not just on the outside in public, but on the inside in private. For God looks on the heart, and nothing is hidden from Him. My desire is to be using my words in the power of the Lord, "to the praise of His Glory".

My challenge would be to you as Beth Moore challenged through this lesson, "Let's allow the Holy Spirit to alert us to misuses of the tongue that can diffuse its spiritual effectiveness: Gossip, Lying, Profanity, Rudeness or unkindness, Inappropriate humor, misuse of God's name." (p. 117)

Djm