The Power of Our Words

woman speaking with hand to mouth

By Carol Doyel –

I attended a Bible teaching at our church taught by one of our leaders titled “The Power of Speaking God’s Word!” As Christians most of us know that our words have the power of life and death, and we can choose to bless or curse with our words – Psalm 18:21; James 3:10.  And yet so many of us have a hard time “taming our tongue”.

Often we say things without giving much thought to the root of our words. Words that we speak over our kids, our spouse, and friends that define them, limit who they are, or worse, curse them. And unfortunately, there may be people speaking things about you that do not fall into the blessing category.

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But the words that can cause the worse damage in our lives are the ones we speak over ourselves. That self-talk or dialogue that is constantly going on in our heads as we go about our day. How we think and speak about ourselves can literally set the course of our life – Proverbs 23:7.

So what can we do to change how we speak to others, or dispel the negative words spoken about us and most importantly, how can we change the way we think and speak about ourselves?

First we have to become aware of what we’re saying. Something our instructor shared that he applies in his life similar to the quote known in the carpentry trade, “measure twice, cut once”, is “think twice, speak once”.

Wow – by stopping and thinking about what we’re going to say before we say it may prevent us from saying things that have the potential to hurt or “cut someone”.  Our instructor used the verse in Matthew 12:36 as an example of thoughtless words, referred to as “idle” words in this verse that he described as “crooked speech”. As Christians the Bible says we will have to give account for every idle, or empty, or as he defined it, every crooked word we speak, as a dear women in our class said, “iyiyi”!

Sometimes our words may be manipulated in such a way that they may not be negative words but they still have the wrong intent behind them, and are used to send someone a message – a passive aggressive comment that can cause offense and we know all too well where offense can lead us.

I recommend that we not only stop and think about what were going to say before speaking, but lets ask God to search our hearts to see if there is any hidden woundedness or un-forgiveness on our part that may prompt us to respond towards someone in a hurtful way. The scripture that comes to mind is, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” – Matt. 12:34-35. If we have unresolved issues then we better go to our great counselor who can help us before we cause greater damage and fall into sin. It’s not the other person who is bound by our unforgiveness or offense it is our soul that suffers, which can lead to diminished intimacy with God, and even sickness; physical and spiritual.

As for negative or curses spoken over us, the instructor recommended that you cancel any word curses or anything coming against you in the name of Jesus and read scriptures like Isaiah 54:17 out loud over yourself: “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me, declares the LORD.” (NAV)

The best thing we can do is to take our thoughts captive and begin speaking the Word of God over our circumstances, our lives, and over our loved ones. Words of life!  And as Thumper said in the movie Bambi, “if you can’t  say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”.

Carol Doyel is Editor-in-Chief and Founder of LivingBetter50.com. She is a graduate of The Full Gospel Bible Institute and has a passion for women’s ministries, issues and lives. She and her husband of 25+ years have three grown kids and three grandchildren.  They currently reside in southern CA. Her desire is to inspire women to live better physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.

 

 

 

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The Power of Our Words
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