James 3:6: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”

August 6th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The “tongue is a fire;” it can easily kindle a raging flame of temper and conflict in a hearer. The “course of nature” is literally the circle of life, meaning it touches every area of life. The statistics of human speech give us a better understanding of how many opportunities we have to fail in this area. The average American spends one-fifth of their life talking. They have 30 conversations and open their mouth to speak approximately 700 times a day. In one year, a person’s conversations will fill 66 books of 800 pages per book. A person probably speaks more than 600 million words over the course of their life.

As kids, there was a familiar saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” Of course as we got older, we discovered that statement was not true at all. Most of us experienced physical injuries growing up: cuts, scrapes, road rash, stitches, all of which healed fairly quickly. Even more serious injuries, like broken arms, ribs, and collarbones, healed over time. But we have all had some thing said to us, by someone we held important, that wounded or even scarred us for many, many years. The Holy Spirit reminds us to be very careful and to watch our words. May He help us not to hurt others with careless words, but may our tongues only bless those around us today. As King David wrote, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart / Be acceptable in Your sight, / O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

“LORD, please make us a blessing to others today.”