Teachings of Jesus

Words are Powerful

What kinds of things do you say about yourself? What do you say about God?

Verse of the Day

But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”

Psalms 31:14

Today’s Devotional

There is a section of verses in Matthew that stood out to me. ‘For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.’ (Matthew 12:34-37)

Words are powerful.  Both the words we say aloud and the words we allow to remain in our head. We are going to spend a few days looking at our words and breaking down the above passage from Matthew 12. There is a verse that I never knew existed until a couple of years ago that speaks to this.  Proverbs 18:21 says, “The power of the tongue is life and death.”  Think about that.  Your words can be life-giving, or they can cause demise, hurt, and destruction. Jesus tells us that our words reveal what is in our heart. Today, I want to specifically look at the words we say to ourselves, and the words we say to God.

Let me give you a silly example about the words we say to ourselves. When you first wake up in the morning, what is one of the first thoughts you have?  For many people, that thought is, “I need coffee.”  Well, no…you need oxygen and food and water, but you don’t NEED coffee to survive.  You want coffee.  You like coffee.  You like the effects of caffeine on your body to help you wake up. But when we tell ourselves, “I need coffee to function” then your brain starts to take that as fact.  It is not fact.  It is a habit based on what we tell ourselves, that then becomes ingrained in us.  And those ingrained things start to look and feel an awful lot like fact.

As you think about the words you say to yourself, and the words you say to God…have you ever noticed how hard on yourself you can be? You probably don’t say those things out loud, but you still say them. On the contrary, how often do you say out loud, “God, you are my God.  I trust you.”?  For me it is not very often.  I need to confess that I don’t talk out loud to God very often.  I’m happy to lead a prayer in my small group and pray with my family before we eat.  I talk to God in my head a lot.  But I don’t talk out loud to God, just me and Him, very often.  Having said that, I believe what the Bible says in today’s verse.  And if Proverbs 18:21 tells me that my words can have the power of life, then I need to be talking to God out loud.  I need to be declaring God’s truth over my life out loud.  I need to be reminding myself who God is out loud.  Because as I am saying these things out loud, they have the power of life. They become tangible truth in my life.

If I am reading today’s verse from Psalms correctly, saying to God “You are my God” will build my faith and trust.  Just like when I tell myself that I need coffee and it becomes truth in my life, then declaring that “I trust God” will become my truth.  And just like telling myself that I need coffee makes my hands and feet go get the coffee, then declaring that “I trust God” will make my hands and feet behave like they really do trust God.  It can’t hurt to try, right?  If it doesn’t work, then I only risk looking and feeling a little silly.  But what if it does work?  That seems like a risk I am willing to take.

Journal Prompts

Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.

What are some of the things that you say to yourself that you might need to examine? 

What truths do you need to declare over your life right now?  Write them down.  Are you willing to say them out loud for a few days in a row and just see what happens?

Do you trust God enough to tell Him out loud that you trust Him?

Do you trust Him enough to declare His truths over your life?