Renew your Mind and Tame your Tongue

We read that we are to speak truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). The two key words are truth and love. It is only as we maintain the delicate balance between these two characteristics that our speech can guide, encourage, heal, movivate, and instruct others. Our tongue is our most powerful possession. Whether we use it constructively or destructively depends on whether or not we trust Christ Jesus to master it. As your mind is renewed by God’s Word and prayer, you can remain so close to the Lord that truth and love are always the first things on your mind and your tongue.

   Praise God for His great wisdom. Lift up a new heart to the Lord, one that is committed to keeping a tight reign on the tongue. “Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.” (Psalm 96:1-4)

Now offer this prayer to the Lord to keep your life free from sin and in fellowship with Him: “No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

Confess your sins to the Lord and be rejuvenated by the power of His Spirit through Christ’s words: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up in  everlasting life” (John 4:14).

As your make your requests know to the Lord, remember:

• That your speech may encourage others,
• Our president and national leader,
• Whatever else is on your hear.

Contemplate God’s grace and offer Him this closing prayer: “This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

   “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumblein many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says,he is a perfect man,able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and saltwater flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.  Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:1-13)