Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Shut My Mouth

Most of my life, I've been the "good girl." I always thought I didn't have a testimony, or at least not a particularly interesting one. When I was younger and I would hear a testimony of someone who had been saved out a life of drug addiction, or immorality, or criminal acts, I would bemoan my uninteresting life. But God doesn't have a ranking system of sins. In His eyes, my "good girl" behavior was the same as all the actions of those whose testimonies I kind of envied.

If there's one thing I've battled most of my life, it's my mouth. I am much too quick to say things I regret, to cut other people down with my tongue, to criticize, judge, insult.... You get the picture.

James 3:5-10 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

Ouch! I'd have a whole lot less confessing to do, and a whole lot less asking people's forgiveness, if I could just get my mouth under control. My one encouragement is in knowing I'm not alone in the battle. Just do a word search on "the tongue" in Biblegateway.com and see how many verses show up. While many of them speak of using our tongues for praise, there are a great many warnings and rebukes for misuse of the tongue.

Psalm 39:1 I said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence."

Psalm 141:3 (NKJV) Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.
I like this one in the New Living Translation: Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips.

Oh, may I learn to let Him control what I say, and keep my tongue from sin!

Ruth S.

Digging Deeper
Psalm 95:7,8 & 9
7For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof,
though they had seen my work.

No comments: