I hope you will take a moment to go to the original post, I was reminded of it while reading a post by Mitch Teemly, titled ‘Sticks and Stones’, that is a profound reminder of the power of our words. I hope you will also take a moment to read his posts.
Category: words
More Than Words
This may be a secular love song but listening to the words I was inspired and was able to hear God telling me that He wants more than our words. We may talk the talk but are we walking the walk. Our works do not create faith but if we have faith and truly love God our actions prove this. If you speak a foreign language does that make you that language’s nationality? I took French in high school but that did not make me French, it just meant that I learned how to read and speak the language.
Thanks to Jesus we have been adopted into God’s family. His sacrifice redeemed us. He did more than say I love you and you are forgiven. He proved it by laying down His own life to pay the price for sins He was not guilty of. He walked this earth not to condemn us but to show us love.
How we live are lives says more about us and our relationship with Him, than the words that come out of our mouths. We say I love you, as easily as we say I love chocolate or pizza. We have watered down our relationship with worldly attitudes and do not even realize it. How we live each day matters, and what we value tells others where our hearts desires are. Scripture tells us that if we love the Lord that He will give us the desires of our heart, but what we do not read is that if you love the Lord the desires of your heart will change to what He desires us to have. Even Jesus when speaking to our Father said, “not will but Thine be done”. When you give you life to God, you are to submitt to His will, to do as He instructs. Our ways are not His, and His ways are not ours. Neither are our thoughts His. Frank Sinatra said he did it his way, but a life with Jesus means we give up our own way. We give Him more than lip service. We give Him our entire lives. We live, eat and breathe His Word. Every action speaks louder than even screaming at the top of our lungs. More than words should be how we live everyday for Him.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Colassions 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
1John 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 2:17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
WORDS / If you don’t have anything nice to say…
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
One thing told to me when I was growing up was, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say then keep your mouth shut.’ I know this phrase is also said in other terms, but they all boil down to this message; Be careful what you speak, the damage your words can do cannot be undone.
People today are so quick to slander each other for such a wide variety of reasons, I won’t bother to start that list. I will talk today of my own self. As some of you may have noticed I have not been posting here for a while. This past year has thrown some painful pitches my way, and some of my earlier posts I talked about how pain can effect us. For me one thing it leads me to is anger, and not a righteous anger. It is an anger that can lead to mass destruction. I can do more damage with my tongue than with my fist.
So I had slowly been isolating myself, which is a terrible thing to do. Yet fear of what I would do in my anger helped me to justify becoming a hermit again. Since I had not had very many nice things to say, I just started shutting myself away from the world. Yet that did not keep me from thinking words of hate and destruction which in other words are curses. No sooner had I thought them or said them aloud, even though I am home alone, I knew that what I was doing was wrong and would have to quickly repent. Yet the thoughts and words still lingered in my mind.
So I have been having this inner battle, that if you saw me in person you would not see this struggle. I do know how to put on the right mask when necessary. I try hard to keep my dark battles to myself and only let those who I feel I truly can trust know of these battles. Which I thank God for blessing me with these close friends who love me unconditionally and do not condemn me when I falter, and so I can confide in them.
Yet this struggle has not left me blind to the fact that I how can I be of help to others if I am home alone licking my wounds, and living in fear? It is out in the fields where the laborers should be, and I have been hiding in my own little cave like David hiding from Saul, or Elijah hiding from Jezebel. Like Elijah hiding in his cave, God has reminded me that I need to get back out there and do what he has called me to do, and not stay hidden in the safety of my home. Which in all honesty is not so safe when you have to battle your personal demons alone because you have hidden yourself.
One assignment He had given me a while back, that I had put off on the back burner so to speak is to unite His body in prayer. I had one excuse after another pop up as either obstacles or rejection to this idea, for various reasons. Yet I have heard Him say it is not over yet, so get back up and keep trying. Now the most current obstacle I have faced is organizing a public gathering for people to gather in prayer because the current problems with the Covid 19. I was reminded that I still have a way to unite my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus in prayer here, and that this would actually reach more people, than if I had organized a prayer meeting for the area in which I live.
Our prayers are to include more than just our family, friends, church, and needs of those we are personally connected to, but to cover this earth with prayer, and for every need to be met and most important, for His will to be done. My next blog will speak more of this assignment and will include how I started making prayer boards.
I hope you will join me in this assignment, and if there are any prayer requests for anyone, ministry organizations, etc… please share those requests here and we can pray together.
P.S. I am sorry that this post started on one topic and led to another, but prayers are words that can do such good, and that is what I have to get back to. Speaking words of life.
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