A Force to be Reckoned With

You know what I find interesting? I find it very interesting that James 3:8-10 says what it does. It tells us that no human being can tame their own tongue. It tells us that out of the same mouth we bless and curse others. We tear apart our brothers and sisters with the same mouth that we praise our Lord and Savior with. I mean, am I missing something here. Does that seem awful to anyone else? Psalm 50 says "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; your own mother's son." James tells us "...no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." Wow!!

When I think of a mouth full of deadly poison I think of a deadly venomous snake. A snake that slowly kills you from the inside and causes an unbearable amount of pain. What I don't realize normally is that our words have that same affect on those around us. We can build each other up or tear each other down. Words are far more powerful than we think. "With it we course people who are made in the likeness of God," James 3. We don't think about it like that, well ... at least I don't think about it that way. When we talk someone down or when we slander their name or when we use words to bully others, we are beating up those with the very likeness of God. Us, the very likeness of God. That brother or sister you just talked bad about or said mean things to, they are the very likeness of God. God made us in His image. He chose people, not deer, not sharks, not even fluffy bunny rabbits to be the likeness of God; NO He chose people of all things. He tells the mountains to only grow so high and they grow no higher. He tells the waters to only come up so far and they go no further. He tells man to know Him and we say we do not want to. He chose us and continues to choose us everyday. He gave us freedom of speech in the most unique of ways. He gave us the freedom of thought and the freedom of choice in what to believe. He does not force us to choose Him. He did not create us to be mindless robots, He created us to have a desire for something. That something is Him.

It says that no human being can tame the tongue, but God can. Coming to know Christ and grow in Him continually is a taming of the tongue. I do not speak the same way I did before I knew the Lord. My desires changed, my tastes for things changed, my speech changed. I fall into sin all the time. Ok, let me rephrase that. I do not "fall" into sin, I choose to sin. For example, when something frustrates me I choose to complain about it. I didn't fall into that, I choose it. People fall into holes that they didn't see, that I could see coming and simply chose not to deal with. I let sin creep into my life and I let it sit and fester. Not cool. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure that should be the definition of not cool. Anyway, that was an interesting rabbit trail. Just as a wild horse cannot tame itself, nor can we tame our own tongue. This has to be a God thing. We have to trust that God will tame our tongue and we have to make actions toward doing so. God has the ability to just zap us and say "tongue be tamed" and it could be done. He chooses to do things differently. If we were not learning from things we would expect everything to be done for us.

One thing my father has taught me very well is to work hard. This is learned behavior for me. It is something I have been taught my whole life. Just like having a tame tongue is learned behavior. God has done many things in my life to show me I need to work hard at having a tamed tongue and ask Him for His help since it is obviously not something I can do on my own. There have been times when I have said things and then later when the person found out I would have to apologize and be super embarrassed that I said such things. Even to this day I still catch myself saying things that have no business being said. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Proverbs 25:11. Somehow I think this could be a reason for our well known phrase "think before you speak". Doesn't that just make you think more about what you say? Do you realize scripture tells us we are accountable for what we say? I think if I thought that every time before I opened my mouth, my mouth would shut shortly after opening with no words spoken. Most of the things that escape my mouth are meaningless. Many people in my life can attest to this. Yet somehow some way ... I still talk, alot matter of fact, I talk alot more than any one person should ever talk about anything. Thank You Jesus for grace and mercy!!

Our tongues are such a force to be reckoned with. God's word is a tool for refining what we say and do and a tool to get to know Him better. He wants us to know Him more. The things I often talk about have absolutely nothing to do with God. Another one of my favorite phrases is, "the things you talk about the most are the things you truly love". Wow, not sure I want to know what I talk about the most. Then again, it would show me how I view God.

Do you love God? The things you talk about most are the things you love the most. So if you are not talking about God or if you run away from people who talk about God ... you might want to re-evaluate your love for Him. Peter was asked by Christ 3 times if he loved Him. The Greek word for love the first two time sChrist asks him is the word agapao. Agapao is a spiritual love. A sincere love that is outside the sensual. The third time is the word phileo. This means to have an affection for or to like alot. So the first two times Christ is saying "do you really love me". The third time He is saying "do you like me alot"? When Peter heard Christ ask Him the third time he was grieved. It hurt him because he realized his love for Christ was not on the same level as Christ's love for him. He was not loving Christ whole heartedly. But when you read in Acts you see that Peter is the ring leader and pushing everyone toward Christ. Christ lit a fire under him and set him a blaze. Peter denied Christ three times and told Christ he loved Him three times with the same mouth. He blessed and cursed the Lord with the same mouth. He too was made in the likeness of God. God has put so many wonderful examples in scripture for us to ponder over. It really makes a person think about what their words say about their relationship with God.




So what do your words say about your relationship with God?