"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord keep watch over the door of my lips."
Psalm 141:3
Psalm 141:3
It happens so often. You're itching to say something, but before you double-check yours words against the Holy Spirit, you let the sentence slip You drop a precisely timed phrase that manipulates. Toss a few flirting words the entice. Aim a verbal barb that stings. Send a signals that you dare not be crossed.
Whatever the message, you've hit the target with your words.
Someone's reputation has been slandered. heart has become divided. Feelings have been crushed. A testimony is compromised. spirit is badly bruised.
Someone once prayed, "Before I move, before I speak, perfect wisdom I will seek." That's good advice for the Christian who ignores the Spirit's prompting and proceeds to be slow to hear and swift to speak.
Matthew Henry builds on that prayer when he says, "Since my lips are the door to my words, let grace keep that door, that no word may go out which in any way dishonors God or hurts others."
And in case you still think a few, subtle words can't do that much harm, let the following serve as a warning:
"The tongue also is fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (James 3:6).
Whatever the message, you've hit the target with your words.
Someone's reputation has been slandered. heart has become divided. Feelings have been crushed. A testimony is compromised. spirit is badly bruised.
Someone once prayed, "Before I move, before I speak, perfect wisdom I will seek." That's good advice for the Christian who ignores the Spirit's prompting and proceeds to be slow to hear and swift to speak.
Matthew Henry builds on that prayer when he says, "Since my lips are the door to my words, let grace keep that door, that no word may go out which in any way dishonors God or hurts others."
And in case you still think a few, subtle words can't do that much harm, let the following serve as a warning:
"The tongue also is fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (James 3:6).
Proverb 13:3 is another reminder, "He who guards his lips
guard s his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin."
Your mind, will, and emotions are dangerously exposed to ruin when you say things with an impure or hurtful motive So before you speak, ask yourself, " Will what I say hurt or help? Will it gkorifg God? Would I be ashamed if others heard? Lord, before I move, before I speak, perfect wisdom I will seek.
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