Dear Daily Message Readers,
READ: Proverbs 16
Proverbs 16:23 (NASB) "The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips."
Can it be that the average person spends 1/5 of his or her life talking? That's what recent statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day's words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year's time the average person's words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! The largest amounts of those words are bound to be some spoken in vulgarity. Vulgarity (or bad language as some might say) seems to be everywhere in the secular world. The TV, casual conversations, and e-mail messages are prime examples of negative language use in our society. However, things can be just as bad within the body of Christ. Vulgarity makes appearances even in places where we would think it had long been banished. Sometimes even from our own mouths!
The Bible recognizes that communication, a central component of our lives both verbally and non-verbally, needs to be monitored with great care each day. For instance, Paul advised the Colossian Christians, saying, "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Colossians 4:6). In Ephesians 4:29, Paul wrote, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." And James cautioned, "No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison" (3:8).
The Bible says we can have more careful speech if we have a wise heart (Proverbs 16:23). But how do we get a wise heart in these wisdom-less days? By yielding to the will and control of the Lord. Only He can help us keep our tongue clean.
Faith Lesson: Our words reveal what is hiding in our hearts.
In Christ,
Darin Smith
READ: Proverbs 16
Proverbs 16:23 (NASB) "The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips."
Can it be that the average person spends 1/5 of his or her life talking? That's what recent statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day's words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year's time the average person's words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! The largest amounts of those words are bound to be some spoken in vulgarity. Vulgarity (or bad language as some might say) seems to be everywhere in the secular world. The TV, casual conversations, and e-mail messages are prime examples of negative language use in our society. However, things can be just as bad within the body of Christ. Vulgarity makes appearances even in places where we would think it had long been banished. Sometimes even from our own mouths!
The Bible recognizes that communication, a central component of our lives both verbally and non-verbally, needs to be monitored with great care each day. For instance, Paul advised the Colossian Christians, saying, "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Colossians 4:6). In Ephesians 4:29, Paul wrote, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." And James cautioned, "No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison" (3:8).
The Bible says we can have more careful speech if we have a wise heart (Proverbs 16:23). But how do we get a wise heart in these wisdom-less days? By yielding to the will and control of the Lord. Only He can help us keep our tongue clean.
Faith Lesson: Our words reveal what is hiding in our hearts.
In Christ,
Darin Smith
