“With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord;
And I will praise Him in the midst of many.”
Psalm 109:30 (NASB)
The Psalms and the Proverbs always emphasize using our mouth to give thanks to the Lord. There’s something about our spoken words, instead of just thinking it. Scripture tells us that life and death are in the power of our tongue.
The words we speak can lift our spirit and give life to those who listen to us. Too often, I catch myself saying negative things when something doesn’t go the way I expected. With sarcasm, I tend to mutter to myself, “story of my life,“ but then I stop myself because it certainly is not the story of my life.
The story of my life is God’s love and mercy that was shown to me before I ever gave Him a thought. By the time I was a young adult, He sought for me like a Shepherd searches for a lost sheep, and He found me. He transformed my heart by His love and grace, and Jesus became a real person to me. Since then, I discovered the amazing love of God, who waits so patiently for us to come home, no matter how long it takes.
I am more inclined now, to keep my words in check, so that I speak words that God agrees with, since He is my heavenly Father. The words we say to ourselves and to others are more impactful than we realize, and can influence a person’s destiny. By taking charge of our tongue and the words that come out of our mouths, we can change our entire outlook and someone else’s life as well.
The epistle of James has a lot to say about the human tongue. He said that though the tongue is a small part of the body, it only takes a small spark to set a great forest on fire. (James 3: 5)
Words can be like a refreshing rain of blessing or a spark that starts a destructive fire. That’s the power of the tongue.
Faith is an attitude of the heart which eventually flows out of our mouths. Since our words reflect our faith, no wonder Jesus asked,
“When the Son of Man comes,will He find faith on the earth?”
(Luke 18:8)
We never know how some small, simple thing we say, can inspire faith in someone else. It may be a good idea to start each new week dedicating our tongue and our words to God.
A few years ago, I wrote a meditation explaining how God answered my prayer to reduce my cable bill, while keeping all my favorite Christian channels. One of my friends who read it, texted me to ask which christian cable stations I received, because she was in the process of changing her cable package.
I was driving and running errands when she texted me so I couldn’t respond right away. Hours later, I quickly looked up those stations on my TV and texted her the names of the four christian stations in my cable package.
What I didn’t know, is that she was already on the phone with her cable company at the time that I sent the text. While she was telling the customer service lady on the phone that she wanted Christian channels in her cable package, the customer service person began sharing her own faith story. She shared how she had just rededicated her life to God after becoming a new mom, with hopes of raising her child in the faith. She asked my friend what stations she recommended so that she could order the same ones in her own cable package.
At this exact moment in her phone conversation, my text message came through, listing the four stations. She received my text at that moment, and shared those Christian cable networks with the customer service representative.
The timing of everything was so providential in how the customer service lady connected with my friend, along with the timing of my text message arrival, that it couldn’t be better planned by anyone other than God.
The Lord knows who is seeking Him and He also knows who is willing to speak about Him, and He loves connecting people at the right place and time. The power of the tongue is a beautiful thing when words are used to bless the Lord, and draw someone else closer to God at the same time.
Lord, let our mouths always give thanks and praise to you, making our words a blessing to others we meet today. Amen
