Shut Your Mouth

Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Proverbs 4:24

The bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Are you allowing your mouth to be used to build up or to tear down?  This verse says to put away perversity from your mouth or keep corrupt talk far from your lips. What does that mean? Is the writer talking about cussing and what not? I don’t think so. Perversity here means marked by immorality (violations of God law) or deviating from what is right or good. Our lips were made to praise God and to speak the truth in love. Therefore, when the bulk of our speech is spent doing the opposite of that, we have deviated from the plan. When we tear down our brothers and sisters in Christ OR those who are far from God, those that Jesus loves… our tongue has become perverted. Keep death off of your lips. Speak life!

Everybody has bad breath from time to time. We all have it first thing in the morning. You get bad breath when you are hungry, when you change your diet, and when you eat a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos chased with a V-8! Bad breath occurs when bacteria are allowed to grow in your mouth. Death makes your breath stink! And that is what a corrupt and perverse tongue does to us spiritually. It makes us stink!

Resolve that in 2012 you will shut your mouth to the filth that wants to corrupt and instead, be a person who speaks life.

Shhhhhh!

I heard a statement last week that has really stuck with me:

“Something is wrong when your are in the presence of God and you are doing all of the talking.”

We pray because we believe that God hears and has the answers. Yet, so much of our talking with God is just that, us talking. Now don’t get it twisted, I am not saying that God will speak to you in an audible voice. He could if He wanted to (He’s God, duh), but in my experience His voice is much more diverse than mere words. Hearing Him clearly requires us to shut the heck up long enough for Him to get a Word in.

Days Like This

At 3:45am it was pouring outside. It wad also cold. I was not looking forward to spending the next 5 hours outside in that weather. I went out anyway because I had a job to do.

My wife called me 4 hours later to tell me that our only vehicle had broken down, was smoking, and that she and the kids were now stranded on the side of the road.

Who has random money for crazy repairs like that? Who has patience for crazy situations like these? Who wishes for crazy days like this?

Why am I surprised that in the rain, in the cold, and in the complications God has given shelter, peace, and provision? (Lord, help my unbelief)

He never let’s us down. We might not have all of the problems fixed, but we sure do see him working on our behalf.