How To Speak Life Instead of Death

Can I share something that the Lord has been teaching me recently? I have been hearing and thinking about the power of the tongue and the ability of our words to speak life or death.

Biblical References

It all started several years ago when I came across Proverbs 18:21. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” I don’t remember where I stumbled across this verse, but I wrote it on an index card and used it as a bookmark.

Later, I began memorizing the book of James, and the end of chapter one discussed our speech. Specifically, verse 26, which reads, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”

I know there are many more verses on our speech and how we need to be careful about what we say (Ephesians 4:29). How our words reveal the content of our hearts (Matthew 12:34). But these are the two that have been specifically on my mind.

Extra Insights

I was listening to the radio the other day, and the gal said there was an easy way to feel more awake. As a mother of a baby who has yet to decide he is ready to sleep through the night, I turned up the volume. She said that all you have to do to feel more awake is to tell yourself you are not tired, but wide awake and full of energy. I may or may not have rolled my eyes…

Upon further reflection, however, I began to see that she might have a point. At least that my constant thinking about how tired I am is not going to help the problem. I started to wonder how many other areas of my life I was potentially sabotaging myself because I kept thinking about how “I can’t…” Fill in the blank. Specifically, right now I was thinking about my memory. How much greater would my capacity to remember be if I thought I could? How many times in my life have I tried to take the power out of God’s hands with this statement? It doesn’t matter at all what I can do. God can do all things!

I think that we often monitor the words we say aloud. Obviously, we are very careful to speak kindly and truthfully to others, but what about the words that we speak to ourselves? I spend all day in conversation with myself. What am I saying? Am I telling myself how big of a failure and screw up I am because something didn’t go quite right? Or, am I telling myself that it is okay that this didn’t work out exactly as I planned? We can eat dinner 30 minutes later than anticipated, and it doesn’t have to be the originally planned meal because the sour cream turned pink without you realizing. Everyone will be fed and make it through to tomorrow.

This can even be a way we hold onto our sin. Sometimes we tell ourselves that, “I am just…” Again, fill in the blank. An addict, an angry person, a habitual liar, etc. It doesn’t justify the sin. I think it is one of the lies of the world that we are supposed to accept ourselves the way we are. No! If I am angry, I need to repent. How much better is it to find identity as a child of God who sent His Son to free us from our sins?

I am most certainly not perfect at this. Even as I am sitting here typing this out, the Lord is bringing to mind more areas of my life that I have been speaking death into. Being more aware of it helps me check myself.

I pray this post will encourage you to think about the words you say not only out loud, but to yourself as well.