Words Have Power

Happy Sunday! I am so ready for this election to be over. It's five months away now. I won't watch the debates, and I rarely watch the news. Politicians love to say bad things about their opponents.

Mudslinging is a full-time job. Word Crafters make speeches and use innuendo and attacks to belittle and diminish their opponents. Relax, I'm not going to get political today. We're going to talk about the Power of Words.

Whoever said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me," didn't have older brothers, didn't go to Middle School, didn't ride a school bus. Words hurt. But on the other side of the coin, words heal. Words can tear down, and words can build up.

With words we make friends, and we make enemies. We cause peace, or we start wars. We can lead others to Christ, or sadly, we can push them away.

There's a story of a woman in an Indian village who maliciously gossiped about another lady and about her family in the same Village. One day she found out that she was wrong about all that she had said, and she had a change of heart and felt guilty. She went to The Village's wise men and asked how she could take back all the wrong she had done, all of the damage.

The wise man told her to go home and kill her chickens and pluck their feathers and put them into a bag. After this, she was to go back and see the wise man again, but on her way back, she was told to scatter all the feathers she had plucked from the chickens. The lady did as she was told. When she got back to the wise man, he told her, "Now go back and pick up all the feathers that you have scattered."

The woman was astonished at such a command and said, "By now the wind has carried the feathers throughout the village and Beyond." And the wise men then told her, "And so it is with your careless words. They're like feathers scattered in the wind. You can never retrieve them."

With that, the woman was brokenhearted because of the words she had spoken. She determined from that day forward to watch her words. That's good advice. We should watch our words.

Proverbs 18:21 States, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Ephesians 4:29 tells us, "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words make give Grace to those who hear." I've read that verse many, many times, and this time four words really jumped out at me. Those four words: "as there is need."

There is need. There is so much need out there: need for building up, need to give Grace. I met a lady not too long ago that used to go to church, and life had been hard, and church was something that was given up on. She had a bad experience, some negative words, and now she's disconnected. We live in a world that needs to hear love and grace and kindness.

Here's a prayer to help you. It's found in Psalm 1914. The psalmist there said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer." "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

Our words display who we are and what's in our hearts. Luke 6:45 tells us, "The good person out of the good Treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil, for it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks." What is in the well will come out in the water. What is in the tree will come out in the fruit. What is in your heart and in your mind will come out in your mouth.

James 3: 6 to10 warn us. There we are told, "Among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It's a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself."

We continue to be told, "People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It's restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it Praises our Lord and father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right."

Today there is good news, and the good news is that with God's help, you and I can do great things with our words. My bride of 41 years told me a story years ago. A young child was in her classroom, and the student said to my wife, "I'm just stupid." And this was a young child. And my wife asked the child, "Who told you that you're stupid?" And the child responded, "My daddy."

We have such power with our words. I pray today that you will use your words to build up and to encourage. I'll close today with a beautiful verse from Proverbs 2511. There we are told, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold and a setting of silver." That is so true. Make your words beautiful.

Pray with me. Lord, today help us to use our words for good, to encourage someone. Maybe we may need to make a call, or maybe we need to send a note. Lord, they are powerful, and help us to make them special to people that we love and people that we know and to strangers. Let them see us make a difference. In Jesus' name, amen.

God bless. Thanks for joining me today.