Speak Life

“Be careful with your words. Once they are said,
they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.”– Carl Sandburg. 

Have you ever said something without thinking about it, and immediately regretted it? Or maybe someone has said something to you that made you really angry or sad.  Every day we speak at least 7,000 words, with women saying up to 20,000 words a day. People say things all the time without thinking about their words. Words are so carelessly thrown around that it becomes natural to say whatever it is on our mind. However, that’s not how God sees words. He gave them as a gift to us, and we need to use them to bring him glory. 

The Bible talks about the power of words. “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21 NIV) Our words have the power to make life or death, literally! 

Though our tongue and words are so small, they can do a lot of damage. “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”( James 3:5-6 NIV).

Our words cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage if we are speaking death or are speaking negatively. However, if we speak life or positively, it can cause miraculous things to happen. It is important that we remember that our words don’t just affect the people around us, but as well as the spiritual atmosphere. With our words, we can either push the devil’s agenda, or God’s agenda. 

The definition of word is, “a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed.” Read the first part of that again. “A single distinct MEANINGFUL element of speech…” Even the world’s definition of words shows us that words have power and that they are meaningful. We NEED to know and remember that our words have power. They are a powerful tool that we can use against the enemy, but we need to use them right. We need to not only make a choice, but a lifestyle change in how we talk.  

We can show the world Jesus through our words and we can build people up. Not only that, but we are also building the kingdom of God! You get to choose if you want to speak life or death. 

There was a season in my life where I tried really hard to speak life to everyone I knew (not that I don’t speak life now!) and it was amazing to see how complimenting people and building them up with life giving words changed the atmosphere around me. But the same goes with speaking death. If we constantly say, “I’m so tired”, “I hate school”, “This is so dumb”, it can literally create a negative atmosphere and put to action what we are constantly complaining about. I’m not saying to ignore things, but you don’t need to speak over yourself the negative things, instead speak life over yourself. 

“With our words, we can either push the
devil’s agenda, or God’s agenda.” 

Try this: make a card or note to yourself and put it somewhere that you look every day in the morning (like the mirror). Put things on it that are positive and that you don’t normally say like “I am a daughter of God”, “I am beautiful”, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, “today is going to be a good day!” See how it changes your day to day life. I can guarantee that it will make your day a little bit better, and it will create a positive atmosphere. 

Speaking life has power, and we need to make the decision to change the atmosphere around us. We have the choice over what we are going to speak into our life, but remember the choice is yours and no one else’s!