Presidents get accused of it. Courts get accused of it. Policemen get accused of it. But Christians? Likely not, but perhaps we should …
Proverbs 18:21 says “Life and death are in the power of the tongue … ”
Do we even realize what that means? Every word we speak has power to give life or death to someone. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally.
Before we start with the eye rolls, let’s look at some of the adults we know. Maybe we will even look in our mirrors at the way we or others have been impacted by words.
That fourth grade teacher who said, “You’ll never amount to anything”.
That parent who said, “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
That spouse who said as he was leaving, “I don’t love you any more.”
That adult child who said, “You were never a success.”
The words that we speak and the words that have been spoken to us linger on in our lives for decades. We begin to see ourselves as rejected, less than. Never as good as others, never feeling like we can succeed. Those words break our hearts. They leave us thinking “what’s the point of trying? This is who I am.”
We become what we think about ourselves and what we allow others’ thoughts to do to us. Years pass, then decades. We can often look back and see that we have achieved exactly what has been spoken over us. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23;7.
Think about the words you say, about yourself and to others. Realize the impact words have had on you and ask yourself if you want to do that to the people you are in relationship with, whether that relationship is with your restaurant server or your child. Words are seeds that produce plants. We don’t get to decide if they will grow. We only get to decide what they will produce. Words are like dandelions. They will continue to pop up and their roots go deep.
Is there hope for the broken heart and wounded soul that we have as a result of years of death spoken to us, by us, or over us? Indeed, the answer is a resounding yes. Find our what your God has to say about you. Find our that He rejoices over you. He does not reject you. He promised He would never even get angry at you. He loves us unconditionally. Jesus came to heal broken hearts. He took our sins, and came to heal us and deliver us from all our destruction, even word destruction. There is no part of us that Jesus cannot and will not heal. He Himself said in John 6:63 “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.” There is healing for “death” words, and it is the word of God.
If you need a quick list of the promises of God and what He says about you, I recommend you visit http://www.terradezministries.com. There you will find a “confession card” that you can quickly use to counter all the lies, the death that either you or others have spoken over you. It’s beautiful and life-changing. It begins with “I’m a party waiting to happen” and an entire list of things God says about you and includes the Scriptures so you can see for yourself where He said them!
Be healed. Be informed. Be bold. Be loved. As “death” couldn’t hold Jesus, when we as God’s daughters discover the truth of who we are in Christ, those old words of “death” can’t hold us either.
For His Glory 