Saturday, June 5, 2010

Now that you've said that...


"For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34)
"...he will have whatever he says." (Mark 11:23)
"...we also believe and therefore speak..."
(2 Corinthians 4:13)
"If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man..."
(James 3:2)

We've highlighted certain words from each of the above Bible verses to consider a point. (There are many other verses but this seemed like a goodly sampling). In each verse, the power of what someone says is the topic. However, are these isolated comments or is this a reoccurring theme throughout the entire Bible?

It's rather ironic the Bible is often called "God's Word"? God has revealed Himself to us through His Word. Jesus, God's only Son, was God's Word incarnate (John 1:14). Everything God has ever done, He's done by using His Word.

In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis we read that when God began creating, He said something pertaining to each element of creation. There are probably several ways God could have initiated creation, but He started by speaking His intentions. Before creating man He said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." So in creating man, we can see God planned that man should be just like Himself. As we review the entire creation, we can see a pattern. God would first speak something about each element of creation and then the expressed result followed.

In chapter 11, we later read of how man's own words are also very powerful. In verse 6, men express their intentions about building a city and tower by saying, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." However, God is displeased with their intent. In response, He immediately addresses mans words, "...they all have one language...now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language..." By confusing mans ability to use words, God immediately defuses their prideful intents. Interestingly, God had to confuse mans words in order to change the outcome!

God created with words, He sustains all things with His words (Hebrews 1:3) and does the miraculous by using words (Romans 4:17).

When speaking of how revealing words are about the condition of someones heart, Jesus warns, "Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you." He concludes by saying, "Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation." (Matthew 12:36-37, Message Bible)

Someone once said "Words are containers". Much of the time without realizing it, we're carrying explosive results in what we're saying- good and bad! Remember, Proverbs tells us that, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..."! Have you ever stopped to consider just how powerful your words are? Your words carry creative power!

The next time you're about to spew out some provocative sentence, consider the outcome of what you're about to say. Will you eventually stumble over those same words?