As tough as James is, those passages forces you to think. I was listening to myself, both in my head and how I speak to others… The Holy Spirit is gracious. If you ask him to nudge you when something is not right, He will do it. Off course, we can ignore it very easily, and I think far too often we do. But He still does it.
While driving, I was listening to a sermon from Bethel, and completely off topic (probably spot on topic, but my head wasn’t completely there) Bill Johnson quotes something he read that referred to Ephesians 4 where it says “Let no unwholesome word depart from your mouth…” and my head got stuck on the word “unwholesome” – playing with that in my head…
Unwholesome not good for you, unhealthy… not positive… in my head it was playing out: a word without a future. It is like, I can speak out something bad over someone, but it will probably go nowhere because of grace.
“Sheesh but you are lazy!” – might be true, but God’s grace may make that the hardest worker on my team or the best student in class… then my words had no future… To help me understand, God sent me a picture… through Instagram 😉
It was a little girl (quite like my own) working very hard and drawing a picture. Showing it to her dad, and then the frame splits in two. In one frame he compliments her and makes a massive fuss over the picture. She keeps drawing, grows up drawing, starts to work at Disney, draws an animation movie, that results in an award for her, but in the background, the soundtrack saves the life of someone that is alone and on the verge to commit suicide. A plush animal as a gift from the movie merchandise takes a little child through surgery and recovery. The movie is a first date for a couple that gets married and lives together until old age…
In the other frame, the father comments that she really isn’t very good at this drawing thing, maybe she should try something else. And she quits.
I literally cried. At instagram!
Unwholesome words works hard to ensure there is no future.
Unwholesome. The greek word is sapros (rotten; worthless; bad) and the aramaic translates as ugly and hateful.
But why? Why do we even allow these words to escape our lips? For crying in a bucket, We are new in Christ, aren’t we!? The old man has gone, the new has come?
Back to Instagram (Seems like its my new bible study tool!) – a writer writes that when she gets stuck on a scene, and literally doesn’t know how the next sentence should go, the problem is not in the sentence, the problem is two or 5 paragraphs earlier. So maybe I should also go back a bit…
Ephesians 4:26-27 says:
“But don’t let the passion of your emotion lead you to sin… _Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you !”
I am not blaming the devil. It is 100% my responsibility. Back to James. How I think is my responsibility, how I speak is 100% my responsibility! Both in my head and out to people. Before the words were spoken, I allowed my emotional state to deteriorate… and allowed myself to be softly manipulated.
“But instead, let your words become beautiful gifts [let them be constructive] that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them. “
