Category Archives: The Power of Words

Mar18

Choose Faith Over Fear

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Get vaccinated with a dose of Faith.

Read Psalm 91 aloud (below), and let the power of His words melt away your anxiety and fear. As you read the psalm, you can turn it into a powerful prayer to the Lord in behalf of you and your loved ones. God is greater than the hardships we face, and no problem is too great for God…not even COVID-19!

While He has us in a world-wide Holy Time-Out, you can replace panic with peace by spending time feasting on the soul food of His Good News, not the constant social feed of bad news.

God is teaching us to trust in HIM — Not the economy, not the stock market, not your job or your bank account.

Put your faith in the One who has overcome the world and rest in the shadow of His wings.

Choose Faith over Fear!

Psalm 91 ~

Whoever rests in the shadow of the Most High God
will be kept safe by the Mighty One.
 I will say about the Lord,
“He is my place of safety.
He is like a fort to me.
He is my God. I trust in him.”

He will certainly save you from hidden traps
    and from deadly sickness.
He will cover you with his wings.
Under the feathers of his wings you will find safety.
He is faithful. He will keep you safe like a shield or a tower.
You won’t have to be afraid of the terrors that come during the night.
You won’t have to fear the arrows that come at you during the day.
You won’t have to be afraid of the sickness that attacks in the darkness.
    You won’t have to fear the plague that destroys at noon.
A thousand may fall dead at your side.
Ten thousand may fall near your right hand.
But no harm will come to you.
You will see with your own eyes
how God punishes sinful people.

Suppose you say, “The Lord is the one who keeps me safe.”
Suppose you let the Most High God be like a home to you.
 Then no harm will come to you.
No terrible plague will come near your tent.
The Lord will command his angels
to take good care of you.
They will lift you up in their hands.
Then you won’t trip over a stone.
You will walk on lions and cobras.
You will crush mighty lions and poisonous snakes.

The Lord says, “I will save the one who loves me.
I will keep him safe, because he trusts in me.
 He will call out to me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in times of trouble.
I will save him and honor him.
 I will give him a long and full life.
I will save him.”

 

 

 

Sep27

3 Truths about Trash-Talk

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May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 (NIV)

God often uses ordinary events to teach His children valuable lessons, and this particular lesson involves something extra-ordinary:  garbage. More specifically…rotten garbage.

Our normal trash collection day is Monday. But a couple of weeks ago, garbage pick-up was suspended due to tropical storm warnings from Hurricane Irma. By the time the next collection day rolled around, the rancid stench from the two-week old trash was over-powering.

I knew it was exceptionally awful when my son (who seems oblivious to bad smells) commented about the odor. He took out the trash from our kitchen and came back in yelling, “Mom! Something’s ROTTEN in the garbage can!”

Those words reverberated  loudly in my ears the next morning when I read Ephesians 4:29, “Don’t let even one ROTTEN WORD seep out of your mouths…” I flashed back to a moment a few weeks before in the car when my son was driving on the highway. Traffic up ahead was stopping — but he was not slowing down. As we zoomed toward the rear end of a flat-bed tractor-trailer, words spewed out of my mouth that shocked both of us.

He quickly slowed the car to a stop and looked over at me in the passenger seat with his jaw dropped open in disbelief.  The noxious words filled our car with a foul aroma — a lingering odor that polluted our relationship for days. A simple, “Stop the car — Now!” would have worked, but I dug down deep in the garbage pit instead for my expletives. Not a proud mom-moment at all.

As I continued to read Ephesians 4:29, these words pierced my heart, “Instead only offer FRESH WORDS that build others up when they need it the most.” The trash-talk that seeped out of my mouth was far from “fresh” and did nothing to build up my son.

I immediately went to “clear the air” with him and asked him to forgive me for not only letting the rotten words flow, but also for allowing the atmosphere to become putrid between us over time. I shared with him how his description of the smelly garbage opened my eyes (and my nose!) to what my foul language had done in the car that day. I promised to aim for using only good words to communicate  grace.

Now every time I take out the garbage, I am reminded of these lessons, and I hope they can serve as reminders to you, too :

Trash-Talk Truths from a Trash Can

  • Rotten words pollute and corrupt.
  • Fresh words build others up.
  • Good words communicate Grace.

The words we speak…or text, write, post, tweet or email..have the power to build up or tear down. So many harmful words are communicated today in haste, whether from our lips or our keyboard. If we simply pause and think before we speak, we can prevent careless words from slipping off our tongues or the keys of our keyboard. Likewise, by withholding harmful words, we can prevent the malodorous consequences they may cause.

Use the power of words to build others up when they need it the most. Make each word a gift — our words may be the only glimpse of God’s Grace that others hear.

Related Scripture:

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.        Psalm 141:3 (NIV)

The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words. Proverbs 15:28 (NLT)