Before You Speak

Happy Sunday! I read this week a story that made me sad. It was announced that former attorney general Pam Bondi has cancer. I don't know Pam Bondi, and that's not what made me sad.

What made me sad is a lady in Massachusetts lost her job because of something she posted on TikTok. What she posted made me sad. The lady from Massachusetts said - “Dear MAGA Lord Jesus, please let her end up with a hole in her throat that she has to push every time she speaks." She goes on, "Dear God, if there is a MAGA God, please let Pam Bondi’s throat cancer be the worst case of cancer anybody’s ever seen.”

What kind of hard heart does this woman have? Sadly there are scores of others that celebrated Pam Bondi’s illness. What I just shared with you is just one story of thousands of people who have no love of God or of their fellow man. I do not care what your politics are - you should never celebrate in the suffering of another human being.

If you read much online you see this every day - wicked people saying wicked things. That leads us to today’s verse : Proverbs 15:28 - “The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.” Think about that. “The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.”

Let me focus on the second part first - “the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.” I gave you one example. It is hard to imagine someone so dark. Words are powerful.

With words we make friends or we make enemies. We make peace. We make war. With words we prove our devotion to God or we prove we are lost.Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 12 - “I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Ephesians 4:29 warns us.- “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” James 3 puts it this way - “No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the image of God.

Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?

Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” Scripture is clear, we should be so careful with our words. Some of us on occasion speak before we think. I love my wife.

I've been guilty. She is beautiful inside and out. When we were first married she had fairly long hair. She went to get a hairdo one day and she came home with short hair.

Speaking before I thought I said YOU LOOK LIKE A BOY. I know, I know, it was stupid. She forgave me. But, I remember it over 40 years later.

Words stick around don’t they. Since that time I have done my best to use good words with my bride. I tell her daily how beautiful she is and she is. That is much better for both of us.

“The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.” Thinking before speaking is good advice - if you have good thoughts - if you have the mind of Christ. I am sure that the quote I read to you earlier from TikTok was thought about. Some people think and the resulting words that proceed are evil.

How can this be? Jesus said this in Matthew 15 - “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander.” It is all about the heart isn’t it?

“The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking;” If you need to work on your words - you first need to work on your heart. May your words make a positive difference to the world around you.