Your Words and Your Destiny

One of the things that I struggle with the most is the issue of the tongue. It's a topic often discussed at fellowships, churches and television ministries because it's an issue that so many of us deal with from time to time, if not all of us. We've all said something the we would love to take back. But some of us make it a habit, it's a "besetting" sin to us, something that has us trapped in bondage.

The Second book of Samuel starts off with an Amalekite man making David aware of Saul's and Jonathan's death. Just to provide a background for those that may not know, Saul was the king of Israel prior to David and Jonathan was Saul's son and David's best friend. Even though Saul was the first King appointed by God to rule Israel, who could have done great things, Saul allowed a number of his character flaws, including his jealousy of David cost him the kingdom.  He tried many times to kill David, however, he was never successful because it was not in God's will for Saul to kill David, as God decided to turn the kingdom over to David. On two occasions, David had the opportunity to kill Saul, however, David refuse to harm God's anointed.

So when the Amalekite came to David and told him that Saul and Jonathan had been killed and he knew this because when he last saw Saul he was alive but near dead and the Amalekite finished Saul off, even at Saul's own wishes, David had his men kill the Amalekite right where he stood because as David said to the Amalekite in 2Samuel 1:15 "Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said 'I killed the Lord's anointed.' "

This struck a chord with me during my devotional reading. How many times have you allowed your tongue and the words that you use kill an anointing or blessing that God may had in your life? I know that I've done it a number of times that I'm aware of. I can only imagine how often I've done it when I wasn't aware.  It is so important to remember that the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) and James further tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry James 1:19.

If we can just control our tongue, control our words especially when we're angry, we would be amazed at what God could really do in our lives and how we can be a blessing to others. We often say so many things that we later regret and spend so much time beating ourselves up which leads to a entire different host of issues. Often dwelling on these past mistakes can lead to depression and depression leads to discouragement. We should think of the peace that can be had by just learning to control the tongue in the first place. We wouldn't have to back track and apologize and think of the "woulda, shoulda, coulda" if only we will hold our tongues.

Meditate on James 1:19 and Proverbs 18:21. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to hold your tongue and speak only when He tells you to speak and learn to pick the times that you speak carefully and you will see some significant changes in your life.

In all religions, cultures, you name it, they all have a saying and a belief about being careful with our words. In the book, The Four Agreement, the very first agreement is to be impeccable with your speech.

As mentioned previously, this is something that I had to learn the hard way and still learning because for some of us, holding the tongue is a very difficult process but I was once given a good reference point by a young lady I went through a discipleship class with: If it's not kind, truth and necessary, then don't say it. I think that's a good rule of thumb that we can all try and follow.