Our Words can be Life or Death

The Gathering: Daughters of the Living King

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Hello friends and welcome to the Gathering: Daughters of the Living King and I am your host Judy Killebrew. This week we are discussing the words that we choose to speak. AND how those words are powerful and can have consequences.

Did you know that God places great emphasis on the way we use our speech. The words “tongue, talk, speak, words, mouth and silence” are used over 3500 times in the Bible. In fact, the pages of Scripture are full of people just like you and me. Some of them serve as a great example of how we should use our words to build up, encourage, and speak for truth. And, there are other individuals in the Bible who seem to be the poster children for just how not to use our mouths.

The words we speak are the vessels that deliver the intent or motive to the ears of ourselves and others. Those words that are spoken can get into the soul (where your feelings, perception, and thinking reside). Some of our deepest needs are to feel connected to others, feel loved, respected, valued, seen and heard. Words can either create those feelings or they can create the opposite.
As a person, and daughter of the Living King, I thrive when I feel encouraged and empowered by words of support and gentleness. There is great POWER in an encouraging and loving word. Our words of encouragement light the fire that can point someone to Jesus.

You may have heard a term used in organizations to “walk your talk” but we also must “talk our walk”. What we say matters in our walk with Christ and how we are being a light within the darkness. Our words must correspond with our actions.

And by the way as we discuss gentleness and encouragement, let’s not forget about our digital tongue: those words that we speak or write on social media platforms. Just as when we are communicating with others face to face, we need to imagine the recipient sitting next to us before we post or tweet something. Are we asking ourselves: is this a wise comment? Will writing this comment help me display God’s love to outsiders? Is this comment full of grace? Is this comment seasoned with salt? Have I asked God if this is the best response to the recipient or audience? The digital age has increased our presence and our words like no other time in history. Let’s be full of gentleness in our digital world too.

So friends, how do we keep a gentle tongue? Colossians 4:5-6 tells us to “Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” James also gave us a nugget of gold when he said “But everyone must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
Friends, I encourage you to declare God’s Word over your situation instead of negative words based on fear and discouragement. Let God’s Word be your final word! Let’s be a healer to others by our words! Ask God to inspire you to say the right thing at the right time. Let us become like the disciple Barnabas, who was deeply loved by many because he knew how to love and encourage others. The world is in desperate need for love, so let us do what we can do to spread that love that comes from our Living King through our words.