Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. Eph 4:29-32 The Message
If you break down life, it’s really about 80 years, thousands of different kinds of relationships, work, rest and play, and lot’s of eating and sleep in between. As Raymond’s Dad put it on tv, “You’re born, you go to school, you go to work, then you die, that’s it, all over, now let’s eat.” They say that we average about 20,000 words a day. So that would be about 5.84 Billion words in a life. Imagine the impact of a persons life if they treated every word they spoke like they were giving a gift to someone. Now you’d have to do it in humility, but what if we chose not to waste any words, but spoke what we felt God wanted us to speak all the time?
You here some people say, “Who does he think he is God’s gift to women, or God’s gift to whatever…” I believe all of us are meant to be God’s gift to mankind. And as this scripture says, “Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Let’s make sure our words count.
The Book of James says, “be slow to speak and quick to listen.” Proverbs says “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who guards his tongue is wise.” And, “The Power of life and death is in the tongue.”
We see in the Gospels the choicest of Jesus’ words. He used most of his words here to teach. I can’t imagine him wasting many words. The only time he really got angry was at the religious fuddy-duddy’s.
The awesome thing in this passage is that, “His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life,” He can anoint our mouths and give us the right words for the right situation. We must seek him more, and no grieve Him, but let his words flow freely.
Father, anoint my lips. Touch them with a hot coal like Isaiah, May your words be like a fire shut up in my bones which I cannot keep in, like Jeremiah. May my words honour you. In Jesus name Amen.