The Power of the Tongue

Wow, as I wrote about the other day, sometimes you don't get much out of your daily studies but other times it’s like bam, bam, bam.  Every other paragraph seems to have good stuff in it.  That's what the last couple of days have been like.  This will be the third day in a row that my musings come out of Matthew 12. 

We are blessed to attend a great church, Valley Family Church.  One of the things that attracted me early on to VFC was hearing the Pastors talking about the Power of the Tongue.   As the Bible says somewhere-You're hung by the tongue, snared by the words of your mouth.  And let me add that the power of the tongue is not only the spoken word but it extends to your internal self talk.

 It's something that my wife and I were taught many years ago and it's something that we tried to pass on to our kids.  As our kids were growing up and we said prayers and tucked them in at night we always told them that we loved them, we were proud of them (and we tried to always mention something specific that made us proud of them), and that they were winners. 

Why?  To use the Power of the Tongue to help the kids grow into healthy, successful and productive adults. 

We tried to teach the kids that word choices can be important.  Instead of having problems we only occasionally have situations.  It may seem like a silly difference but the emotions that the two words evoke are different.  Instead of complaining that something is "too hard", we might say that it is a "little challenging". 

When feeling a bit under the weather and someone asks how we are doing, instead of "Wah, wah, wah, I'm just dragging, etc. etc. etc." our answer would be "I'm doing great" or "I'm doing better all the time" with as much enthusiasm in my voice as I could muster  (Which, depending on how cruddy I really feel may not be a lot but it's the words and the effort that count).

It may seem silly to some, but God tells us there is tremendous Power in the Tongue.  It's another tool that He has given us and I think it makes sense to use it.

Now let me explain why I am talking about this today.  Take a look at this scripture. 

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Matthew 12:36-37(NKJV)

36But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 

37For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

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Now let's go back and look at yesterday's scripture.

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Matthew 12:32(NKJV)

32Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

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Let me toss one other concept in here and tie it all together.  That concept is productivity.  God wants us to be productive with the time and talents He has given us.  That includes our use of the Power of the Tongue.

So just how powerful is the tongue?  We are told that we will have to give an account for "every idle word" (but not our productive words).  By our words we will be either justified or condemned.  The Power of the Tongue can literally be the difference between eternal life and eternal death.

Matthew 12:32 tells us of the one unforgiveable sin.  What is it?  Speaking against the Holy Spirit.  The Power of the Tongue.  That is eternal death. 

What does it take to receive eternal life?  Simply believing that Jesus died for all our sins and was raised from the dead, AND asking Jesus to be Lord of your life.  The Power of the Tongue.  Eternal life.  Now let me be perfectly clear here.  The Power of the Tongue doesn't give us eternal life directly, Jesus does that, but it is the Power of the Tongue that allows us to invite Him into our lives.

And the cool thing is that it is totally in your control.  You get to chose.  All you have to do is use this incredible tool that God has given us, the Power of the Tongue.   Have you invited Jesus into your life yet?  If not then why not harness the Power of the Tongue and grab hold of eternal life right now by accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?  You'll be glad you did!