by Jim Hughes
Prov. 13:3 Those who control their tongue will have a long life; a quick retort can ruin everything.
The tongue can be a very nasty member of the body. Everyone of us have been victim and victimizers of others with the tongue. We say things that we often regret. We hurt those we love and care about with the words we speak. We say things that sometimes are simply not true because we don’t have our facts straight and sometimes we fail to take the time to consider how we will affect others by what we say. We speak often from our emotions instead of our heads. Sometimes we may even wish that we could cut our tongue out so we don’t hurt anyone anymore.
Scripture makes it clear that what we speak comes from the heart. Therefore, we must take a serious look at our hearts. We must regularly ask ourselves, “Is my heart right with God?” Do we take the time we need in God’s Word to have our souls exposed before God? You cannot spend time in the Word on a consistent basis without seeing yourself as falling short of God’s standards of holiness. God’s Word is clear; we all fall short of God’s glory. No one is so righteous that he does not sin. Biting and hurtful words come from a heart that is not right with God.
If you need to gain better control of your tongue, take your need for the Lord to have control of you more seriously. Self-control is one of the evidences that you are under the control of the Spirit of Christ. You will never perfectly control your tongue, but you can do better than you now do. The issue is, “Will you let the Lord have His way with you?”
Don’t ruin everything. Take the time to be holy in your heart so that your tongue won’t betray you.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.
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