I hope you enjoyed a relaxing weekend and are rested up for another week of service to God at school, at work, at home - wherever you are! :) This week we're starting James chapter 3, the first section of which is purely devoted to controlling our speech.
Right away I have to say that after reading the verses this morning, I thought of this weekend at work. I worked ten hour days both Saturday and Sunday, and boy, did it become difficult to tame my tongue towards the end of those shifts when I was not only fighting the stress all around me, but trying to ignore the tiresome ache running through my body! It's surprising how easy it is to let my mouth be the first thing to go when I don't "feel good".
I am very thankful for a day off today to re-group and reset from my not-so-relaxing weekend. I am going to focus on my blessings and on my real priorities today!
I want to share with you bits and pieces from the GMG post for Wk. 6/Day 1 in their study on James:
The genuineness of a person’s faith will inevitably be demonstrated by her speech.- John MacArthur
When you feel tempted to “put that person in his/her place”, pray instead.
When you feel tempted to spread a “little gossip”, pray instead.
When you feel tempted to “tell it like it is”, pray instead.
When you feel tempted to return hurtful words with your own hurtful words, pray instead.
When you feel tempted to say something you shouldn’t….DON’T…pray instead.
Pray instead - ask God to give you the strength to overcome the temptation and help you develop the discipline of controlling your tongue.
Ways that we can tame our tongues:
1. Humble yourself
2. Put off all slander and evil speaking
3. Put on a heart and words of kindness, love, forgiveness and grace
4. Bring your thought life under the control of the Holy Spirit
5. Talk less (James 1:19)!
6. Think before you speak (James 1:19)!
7. Refuse to listen to slander or gossip about others
Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. – Psalm 141:3
These are all just wonderful thoughts for us to start our week out on, and I pray for all of you to let God change your speech, to let Him help you control what you say so that it glorifies Him. I ask you to pray for ME in this! I know this is an especially difficult area for me.
Lovely ladies, God bless you. Missing you - and I'm thinking and praying lots for each of you.
Have a wonderful Monday!
In Him,
Cait
I really like that verse from Psalm 141. Whenever I look at a door I am going to remember that one. Maybe I will tape that verse up on a door to think about it this week. I have not read many of the "hundreds" psalms recently. What a beauty.
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