As promised, here are my devotionals for Does Your Tongue Need Healing - Hope they are a blessing to you in some way or any other.Chapter 1 - Death or Life?
Key Verse:
Proverbs 3:13 - "He who guards his lips, guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." (NIV)
Key Thoughts:
As we speak, we can either speak life or we can speak death. There is power in our tongues.
Consider this, God, the creator of the human head, designed it with 7 openings. (The number 7 is often used in Scripture to denote completeness) We have 3 pairs of openings - 2 eyes, 2 ears, and 2 nostrils. But He restricted the 7th opening to just ONE, the mouth! (Prince, p 5)
Do we use this ONE opening to speak mostly death into our lives and the lives of others, or do we seek to speak LIFE?
Chapter 2 - The Heart Overflows through the Mouth
Key Verse:
Matthew 12:33-37
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (NIV)
Key Thoughts:
It is important to live out what Jesus teaches us in the verse quoted above. A good tree bears good fruit and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. Our words are very similar - Negative words and speech will not bring forth blessings, same as positive and encouraging words will produce that which is good.
If the heart is good, then out of the mouth will come words that are good. But if the heart is evil, then out of the mouth will come words that are evil...We may deceive ourselves about the state of our hearts with all sorts of ideas about our own goodness, purity, or righteousness, but the sure and unfailing indicator is what comes out of our mouths. God knows our hearts! (Prince, p 16-17)
Chapter 3 - The Biblical Picture of the Tongue
Key Verse:
James 1:26 - "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." (NIV)
Key Thoughts:
It does not matter how religious we may claim to be. We may attend church, sing praises, and do all the other things that are expected of religious people. In themselves, all those things are good. We may do all those things, but if we do not keep our tongues under control, our religion is worthless and unacceptable to God. (Prince, p 24)
As a sinner, I am definitely convicted of this. How many times as Christians do we speak about how much faith we have and our knowledge of Jesus being the same yesterday, today, and forever; yet in the next breath we speak something that completely lacks the faith we just proclaimed to have! This happens too often when sickness, or trails, or hard circumstances hit our lives; but it also occurs in simple daily life situations as well. I know I need to prayerfully keep a tighter rein on my tongue in these situations!
Next Week - Chapter 4 - Words Determine Destiny
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