Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Most Difficult Organ to Control

UV 1083/10,000 The Most Difficult Organ to Control
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile

I Peter 3 v 10

Our lips should not be used for deception. We should keep our tongue away from speaking evil. If we do this, the Word guarantees that we will love our lives and we will see good days. The Psalmist writes that if we avoid guile and evil in our speech we will see many good days. The reason is that the eyes of the Lord will be upon us and His ears will be open to our cry. If we do not, the face of the Lord will be against us. Our prayer will be offensive to Him. He hears every loose word we speak. He knows the motive and thought behind every word.

When the Lord Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him, He testified, “ Behold an Israelite in whose mouth is no guile”. We should also so hold our conduct and attitudes that the Lord will similarly remark on seeing us come to Him, “ a man or woman in whose mouth is no guile.” As James writes, our tongues though small and tiny are like the rudder that can steer a boat out of many troubled waters or can be the very cause of strife-the spark that sets off a forest ablaze. Many leaders and common folk have used their tongues in such a way that it cuts off their heads.

James again wrote that if a man can control his tongue, he is perfect. If we want to be perfect in our speech, we just need to ask permission from each of the 32 teeth guarding our tongues before speaking a word. At least 32 seconds of thought will go into every word we speak. We will be sending our words through many filters before they emerge from our mouths. We can also adopt the dictum of the scriptures, “ Apples of gold in settings of silver.” The world teaches us speech is silver and silence is golden. The truth is that speech can be like golden apples produced from a furnace of silver. We need to meditate on the words of eternal life that Jesus spoke. We need to benchmark our words against the teachings of Jesus. Instead of guile, evil, sarcasm, vanity, gossip, criticism of others, we should always endeavour to speak words of appreciation, encouragement, positivity, confidence, faith, love and gratitude. The mouth will speak what the heart is full of. We need to treasure good and godly words in our hearts and that will ensure rivers of life-giving water will flow out to satisfy the thirst for truth and goodness of people around us. If we get our hearts, minds and mouths in proper alignment with the Word of God, our own words will be like arrows that hit the target and achieve the purpose they are meant for.

Prateep V Philip

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