The Small Member With Great Powers

This week, we will be looking at the tongue. The book of James describes it as ‘an unruly evil, full of deadly poison’ (James 3:8b).

Why is the tongue described this way? And does it affect our lives in more ways than we actually know? We will be studying this in two parts.

The Potential of the Tongue

The Tongue has an enormous potential for creativity. We are told in the Bible that the world was formed by the word of God. In creating the world, God called into being things that were not in existence. With the words; ‘Let there be light’, He started creation.

Hebrews 11:3 says ‘...the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.’ Human beings were created in the image of God and also have this power to create with their words. This is irrespective of their spiritual condition. Therefore, we can use our tongue to build or destroy ourselves and those around us. It might seem incredible but to a large extent we create some of our circumstances. The book of Proverbs 6:2 says: You are snared by the words of your mouth, you are taken by the words of your mouth.

Like everything else after the fall of man, this spiritual ability to create became corrupted.  King Saul in the Bible was so angry with his son Jonathan for befriending David that he told him ‘do you not know that while David is alive you will never sit on the throne’ and this was exactly what happened. Saul reinforced the judgment God had passed on him with his words and actions. How many people were brought up in an atmosphere of cutting remarks and still find it hard to rise above its effects as adults.

There are lovely people who have such poor images of themselves because parents/caregivers tore them to shreds when growing up. Husbands/Wives who are nervous and make more mistakes because of the constant criticism of a spouse.

Proverbs 12:18 says ‘There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword’ and 11:11 ‘By the blessing of the upright,the city is exalted:but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked’.

We speak words and they take effect. There is so much negativity that has crept into language and we use this language. Are we surprised there are depressed people, alcoholics, people with suicide intentions? More importantly, what can we do? Many people find it hard to control what they say. We want to say the right things, but what do we do when anger takes over or a frustrating situation comes up?  Worse still, we find ourselves saying the same negative words that were spoken over us while we were children to our own children. It can feel like the trap that it truly is, a cycle.

Anger management courses, antidepressants, secular counselling – all these attempt to help but the problems are not reducing or going away, only the power of God can deal with the tongue and other problems arising from its misuse.

The Lord has also put in place guidelines for our lives that will keep us from falling into the trap of negative speaking and the evil cycle that it perpetuates.

We will discuss more of this in the second part.

Remain blessed and highly favoured.
Titi Obishai (Mrs.)