The Power of Words

I had a reminder this week from a friend on how powerful our words are. Proverbs 18:21 tells us “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Our words are containers of power that give life or bring death to others and to ourselves. We are asked to think on these types of things in Philippians 4:8 – “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”, When we speak words of life such as these, we are planting good seeds into the life of others. And if we gossip and complain, and speak badly to or about someone else, we’re planting seeds of death and destruction.
Can you remember something that someone said to you, whether it was this past week, or back when you were a child that was critical or demeaning? Those words spoken to you were powerful. If they weren’t you wouldn’t still remember them. When negative words are spoken to us and over us, we begin to believe them and act them out. Thankfully, the opposite is true as well. When words of encouragement and life are spoken to us, we begin to believe them and act them out. Don’t let negative words that someone else spoke to you hold power over you. Know who you are as a believer in Christ, and speak these words and others that you find in God’s word out loud to yourself:

I am a child of God. (John 1:12)
I am the righteousness of God in Christ. (Romans 3:22)
I am God’s workmanship. (Ephesians 2:10)
I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:7)
I am a member of Christ’s body. (1 Cor 12:27)

Not only do we impact others with our words, we also impact ourselves. What we say, whether encouraging or discouraging, will come back to us. Are you feeling the death or the life of the words you have sown? Here are a couple of scriptural prayers that you can pray and ask the Holy Spirit to let you know when you are speaking words of death to someone else and yourself:

Ps 19:14 – “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Ps 141:3 – “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the doors of my lips.”

When you pray in this way, you are asking the Holy Spirit to convict you when you talk in a way that is unpleasing to God. And when He shows you, that’s when you should turn away from that sin. If you’ve said something you shouldn’t have said to someone, then go to them and ask for forgiveness, and ask God for forgiveness as well. Let’s use our words to build others up instead of tearing them down. And let’s ask the Holy Spirit to convict us when we fall short.

Dear Heavenly Father,
You know that what I speak comes from the overflow of my heart. So I ask that You change me so that I would have a heart like Yours. I want the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart to be pleasing in Your sight, Lord. I ask that you set a guard over my mouth and keep watch over the doors of my lips. Help me to be an encourager, and bring life through my words. And show me when I go astray, that I may turn from this sin and follow hard after You.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.