Category: Faith

Words, Words, Words

How Important are My Words

Are our words important? How does God view what I’m saying?

In the Bible we can see that how important words are to God. He created the world by speaking. He always emphasized the writing down of His words to His people.

There used to be a time in our culture/society’s past where all a person had to do was give you “their word” that they would do something and you could consider it done. Now it is almost a novelty that someone will do something solely based on their word. This should not be so.

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

–Proverbs 18:21

Our words are this important. Have you ever noticed that people who speak negatively or dwell on bad things tend to have bad things always pop up in their life. It seems like they go from one crazy situation to another crazy situation.

Don’t Be Scared

A word of caution here: Don’t be scared to the degree that you’re never going to say another word. That’s not what God wants either. Be encouraged that while we now know how important our words are, God also has given us the right words that we should be saying. Words that encourage people and not tear them down.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”zy971″ via=”no” ]Our words can bring Life or Death[/ctt]

Our words can bring life or death with them. Why would I want to speak death over the person that cut me off in traffic? Do I want to speak death on my boss for writing me up for something? In the moment that these things happen we may say “Yes”, we want to say something to these people. However, God has called us to be better than our feelings.

We Have a Choice

We have a choice in the words that we say. Will it always be easy? No, it won’t be easy and there will be times where people or situations will test us. Even in those moments, God has made a way for us to speak the right words.

“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” –Psalm 91:1-2

This is an example of what we can say when times are hard or when we don’t know what to say. It helps us to remember to take time to go to God before we react to every person or situation.

How have you kept an eye on what you say?

Staying the Course

Where Are We Going?

Stay The Course

Many times as Christians we hear the phrase “Stay the course.” While it sounds great and most people would agree its necessary, few understand what it truly means?

Staying the course should start with “a course”. I’m currently writing this while I sit in an airport terminal. There is a hustle and bustle as the sea of people make there way from one place to another all with a specific destinations in mind.

What is the course we are on? Where are we going? Observing the people in the airport I notice a couple of things that I think can be applied to our spiritual lives.

FOCUS

1. The destination is the focus. Whether exiting from a flight, making a connection, or boarding a flight people are walking with a focus. There are signs, “Terminal C”, “Gate 27”, and as people look for the specific location that will take them to their destination they are determined to make it where they need to be. God has a destination and plan for everyone. We should pursue it purposefully like we do when we are in an airport.

DISTRACTIONS

2. Ignoring the distractions. Walking through an airport, people are so focused that they do not stop for the distractions that surround them. We know how important it is that we make it to our destination. We know the investment that we have made whether money or time and how valuable it is that we make our flights. There are so many times that we know God has given us something to do, but we let distractions get in the way. When it comes to doing what God wants, there seems to be a ready made distraction waiting.

 

TIME

3. The time is accounted for. By this I mean that when we know we are going the airport, we calculate the cost of our time. We think of how early we need to leave home in order to get the airport. We think of the car ride there, the weather, and how much time we will need to get through security. When we want to see God’s plan in our lives we need to do the same thing. Let’s think of the “cost.” Do we need to rearrange our schedule? How much time do we need to commit to this to see it come to pass? What other areas of our lives do we need to commit to God and what will it cost?

I don’t believe that staying the course is as hard as we make it out to be, if it’s important to us. We can absolutely finish, whatever it is. Let’s tell ourselves that it’s important and then treat it as such. The things that we value, we make room for in our lives. We can do this! Once we do, we’ll race to see God’s amazing grace and plan come into our lives.

A Moses Moment

We Can Learn from Moses

There is so much that we can learn from the people in the Bible. One that I was recently studying and looking at is Moses. Moses accomplished some of the most amazing things in the Bible. Yet, if we look at the man that is him, there are a lot of the aspects of him that we can relate to.


My Moses Moment

About two years ago, God put it on my heart to write a book. This was a completely new direction for me. I hadn’t really considered doing something like this. So as God is giving me this new set of directions on what I’m supposed to do I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around it.

It was during this time that I had a Moses moment. If we remember Moses had left Egypt and was having what we would consider a comfortable life. It was in the midst of this that God came to him and told him that he wanted him to set His people free [Exodus 3].

Responding to God

When God began talking to Moses and telling him everything that He wanted Him to do, Moses had an interesting response. Most of us would think that the ideal response would be excitement about what God is about to do.

Moses had a response that I believe most of us have when God talks to us. It’s the same response I had when God told me about writing a book. My response, Moses’ response and many other people respond with the excuses of why we can’t do it.

Moses gave God every excuse that he could think of, to try and help God see that he wasn’t the right person. I came up with my own set of excuses and they manifested in me procrastinating and then just now wanting to do it. Many times God is calling His people to take the next step. We come up with the excuses and reasons on why it shouldn’t be us.

Many times God is calling His people to take the next step. We come up with the excuses and reasons on why it shouldn't be us. Click To Tweet

We seem to think that we will help God choose someone else for this assignment. When we fail to realize that He chose us.

We seem to think that we will help God choose someone else for this assignment. When we fail to realize that He chose us. Click To Tweet

More Alike than we Think

Just by looking at Moses and how he responded to God, we are more like Moses that we realize. Has God called us to free His people from slavery, maybe not. He has called us to free the people in bondage around us. It may not be millions of people, it may be one person.

Our responses tend to more in line with the people in the Bible than we think.

Like Moses, at some point we run out of the reasons and excuses on why we can’t do what God has called us to do. Then we’re left with His Word and taking a step of faith in what He said was possible.

What has held you back from what God has called you to do?