Watch Your Mouth

DAY 15 – PROVERBS 15

Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim. Proverbs 15:14

Words: Our brain lights up sending a signal telling our lungs to inhale, we activate our voice box then move our lips and tongue until sound comes out. We all do this effortlessly and without thinking about it everyday. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but it’s easy for us to be unintentional with our words. I propose that we be more intentional with them.

You see, words don’t come from nowhere;  whether it be during a conversation, writing a letter or tweeting, words come from the thoughts of our heart. Trying to watch your mouth without watching your heart is like frantically mopping up the floor without fixing the gushing water leak. The NIV Bible says “…the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.“

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Matt 6:45

God has put us in a voice activated world. Your words are powerful, your words have eternal consequences – What will you say?

God said let there be light and there was. God brought the galaxies into existence with His words. We are made in the image of God and our tongue can be the greatest force for good or not; we can drag people down or we can build people up, we can speak life or we can speak death. Our words can be constructive or destructive, encouraging or discouraging, life-giving or life-draining.

“Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose.” Proverbs 18:21

To declare or confess comes from the Latin word Homologia which means to say the same word as, to agree with. When you speak, who are you agreeing with? Are you saying the same as the world? The devil? The doctor? What are the thoughts of your heart aligning with? 

You say you’re a worm? You say you’re insignificant, that you don’t matter and who are you for God to take any notice of you at all? How humble and religious that sounds!! I’m not impressed. Here are some useful definitions for you:

Humility= agreeing with God

Pride= disagreeing with God

Why not agree with God? What does God say about you? What does God say about the irritating person you work with? What does God say about this situation you find yourself in? God’s opinion matters and so does yours, so align your thinking with His. Don’t be ignorant of who you are and what you have in Christ.

 Change what you say; agreed with God. Stop cursing yourself, start blessing yourself. Don’t give power to struggle, worry, anxiety, disappointment, hurt in your life. Stop saying you can’t overcome that problem, stop saying you can’t so that thing. You can do it, you can overcome and conquer. Sin, sickness, inadequacy, loneliness, doom and gloom, guilt, mediocrity, inferiority, confusion – ALL dealt with on the cross.

Start Declaring Who Your God Is

Look at Psalm 121. Did David spend the whole psalm describing how big and scary the mountain was? Did he explain how impossible it was to climb, how steep and treacherous is was? Did he tell us how intimidated he was whilst standing in it’s shadow? NO! He declares who God is!

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

Start Declaring Who You Are in Christ

Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing so start speaking the Word of God into your life.

In my very first week of Bible College the students were given an assignment to look in the mirror every morning for three weeks, eyeball to eyeball, and declare: I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Honestly, the first morning I felt awkward and foolish, the second morning I felt like a liar, trying to convince myself of something that wasn’t true. But faith comes by hearing! 

Two weeks into this thing and I was speaking with conviction. I believed it. I started walking and talking differently, I began to see myself the way God saw me; He changed my whole identity and showed me who I was in Christ.

What I had done was to bring my thoughts and words into alignment with God’s Word which translated truth into my life. I strongly urge you to try this same exercise every morning for the next 3 weeks and you’ll be amazed at how God speaks. I promise you!

We’ve touched on identity here but whatever it is you’re going through; an argument with a spouse, struggling with your bank balance, received a bad doctor’s report – see what God says about it and start speaking that! Speak life, speak blessing, speak encouragement, speak freedom, speak words of life from the mouth of the Life-Giver Himself and watch things change.

Have you every said something you wish you could take back?

Do you have an example of how your words had an effect on another person for good or for bad?

As we journey together and learn from each other, using the comment form below, please share your experiences or insight on this topic…

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Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win

DAY 13: PROVERBS 13

Easy come, easy go, but steady diligence pays off. Proverbs 13:11

Life can hit you hard. Sometimes you get knocked down when you didn’t see it coming. Some blows can bring you to your knees. When this happens, it’s not about how hard you get hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, but still find the strength to keep moving forward.

Around here we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things. –Walt Disney

Faithfulness and diligence are not the same thing. Faithfulness is to be established, reliable, keep doing what you’re doing. Faithfulness is staying in the same place, diligence is taking the one step at a time to where you need to be.

Diligence is persistence in the face of opposition. Diligence is striving towards the goal no matter how far off it may seem. Diligence is pushing forward, pressing ahead, to turn the vision God has put in your heart into reality.

Rocky Balboa contains a very poignant scene between Rocky and his son. The message Rocky delivers is one of hope, courage and determination when life hits hard:

This scene is a great reminder that character is not defined by what happens to you, but rather by how you react to what happens to you. When you get hit, do you stay down? Or do you reach down somewhere deep inside of you and pull up the courage that lifts you back on your feet to keep moving forward? You do have a choice.

5 Ways to Keep Moving Forward

Forget Regret: Leave your mistakes and regret in the past. They don’t define you. Give yourself the gift of forgiveness and keep moving forward.

Learn from Failure: Learning from failure and having regret are two separate things. Often when you are removed from a situation, you can look at it more objectively and learn from it which will allow you to make better choices in the future.

Ask for Help: You are not alone. It feels like it sometimes but you’re not. Just ask. A hand to grasp, a shoulder to cling, and a face to radiate hope can help you to keep moving forward.

Trust: Trust that God knows what He’s doing and hold onto Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Keep the Faith: Faith: A strong belief in something without proof or evidence.
When you’re tired and beaten, the one thing that tells you to keep going; to get up tomorrow and to keep moving forward, is your faith. Honour and cherish it. It gives you energy and hope.

Know Who Your Friends Are

DAY 12 – PROVERBS 12

Worry weighs us down but a cheerful word picks us up. Proverbs 12:25

Ever just had one of those days? You woke up late, car broke down, had to run for the bus, forgot your wallet, missed breakfast, got told off by your boss, you’re having a bad hair day and to top it off you lost a follower on Twitter! You’ll be glad to know you’re not the only one.

And then sometimes life throws you a real spinner and it gets a bit more serious: whether it’s an unexpected loss of a loved one, a relationship turned sour or mounting money troubles – it’s at times like this you need your friends around. You quickly realise who your real friends are! A true friend sticks around when the going gets tough.

Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. Proverbs 18:24

The best thing about those good, lifelong friendships is when that person knows you inside and out, sees all of your faults and loves you regardless. You can be your crazy self and they accept you anyway. You might not even see them for a while and that’s okay too, it doesn’t make a difference. These God-sent people can make you laugh when you didn’t even feel like smiling, just a few choice words and already you feel better.

How To Be A Good Friend In Hard Times

  Don’t:

Tell them to ‘build a bridge and get over it.’ This rarely helps.

Preach scripture at them and give them a lecture.

Worry about saying the right thing.

     Do:

Just listen. Let them get it off their chest.

Give them space if they need it.

Be there for them. Show them that you care. That’s enough.

Thank God for these special friendships in your life and treasure them! If in any doubt just apply the golden rule: be the friend that you would want if you were in their position. The fact that you’ve read this all the way to the bottom goes to show how great of a friend you really are! Well done!

Live A Wide-Open Spacious Life

DAY 11 – PROVERBS 11

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. Proverbs 11:24

The opposite of a selfish life is a God-centered life. A selfish, self-centered life is very small; you are the universe. There’s nothing outside of your agenda, your ambitions. Don’t box yourself in. The love of money works both ways; selfish people who have will hoard, selfish people who don’t have will resent those that hoard.  

A God-centered life is a wide-open and generous life. As we take the focus from ourselves to the awesome Creator God He opens up our horizons and breaks off the limitations – this is limitless living! As we grow in love for our reliable Father and for those around us, our lives become bigger and more generous.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and put it this way:

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! 2 Cor 6:11-13

Generosity is not freely giving things away. You see, generosity is much more than a type of ‘free-givingness’. It doesn’t take a God-centered person to give stuff away, I can do that without the love of Jesus. It just takes any kind person to do that and we must be more than just kind.

Generosity is not the free, no-strings-attached giving of things that I have.  Generosity is first the recognition that all that I have was never mine to begin with.

The heart of generosity is not just love for other people. The heart of generosity is deep-seated gratitude; gratitude towards Him from whom we have received. It’s simply recognising that everything I have is God’s anyway.

Now you know why people in church always say give with a grateful heart. Everything you have is a gift from God so give ‘your’ time, money, skills and anything else you can think of with a grateful heart!

 As a church we are destined to become more than just another humanitarian agency or socially-involved organisation. The moment the church links her generosity (in word and action) to the Gospel itself she becomes an  ambassador, a witness, a reflection of that ultimate act of eternal generosity experienced in the life, death and resurrection of King Jesus.

In our self-centered, individualistic western world, learning to be truly God-generous people would make the church a truly unstoppable force.

Don’t Stay Stupid

DAY 8 – PROVERBS 8

She’s taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, “You—I’m talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets! Listen, you idiots—learn good sense! You blockheads—shape up! Don’t miss a word of this—I’m telling you how to live well, I’m telling you how to live at your best!” Proverbs 8:2-7

Observation – Wisdom is immediately available to all and it’s worth more than gold, it’s better than jewels. Who can put a value on it? We should actively seek after it with everything we are. It’s common sense living, a basic understanding of who you are and where you stand in life. It is the proper perspective, a healthy fear of your eternal Maker.

Though wisdom may be freely available, arrogant know-it-alls sneer condescendingly; they vastly underestimate it’s value. Though it be right in front of their face they do not see it for they have created a world within a world for themselves, cocooned from reality and driven by their hungry egos.

Application – If you look, you’ll see; if you’ll listen you’ll hear. Ignoring wisdom is like closing your eyes to make yourself invisible – it’s just self-deluding. Sometimes I can unconsciously busy myself and fill my mind with the temporal, not so important issues of the day when I should just take a second to stop, think and remember. Wisdom enables me to make good decisions, to live well and to please God and God’s Word is full of it.

Prayer – God I don’t know what I would do without you. You teach me an guide me through life. Increase my learning, transform my thinking, change my old ignorant-of-you mindsets and renew my outlook. Thank you for working with me despite my silly ideas sometimes, I know your truth stands unshakeable. Bring people into my life who are hungry for wisdom and eager to understand the way.

You Don’t Have to Sin Anymore, It’s Not Who You Are-struggling-with-sin

DAY 7 – PROVERBS 7

With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with her flattering lips she seduced him. Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would cost his life. Proverbs 7:21-23 

Do me a favour and flip open your Bible to Proverbs 7 with me. Solomon stands on his balcony watching as a naive lad, a young man devoid of understanding, walks by ‘her’ house in the dark of night. Everyone knew where this temptress lived; she was notorious. Note that this was under the cover of night – it’s the sin done in secret that has the strongest hold over you.

This guy should not have been anywhere near her house at this time of night, but here he is being seduced by her. She says “I have perfumed my bed…Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love for my husband is not at home” It doesn’t take long for this guy to be persuaded!

The Message Bible goes on to say at verse 21: Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. Before you know it, he’s trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.

Can you imagine how excited this guy is?! I can see him rubbing his hands together expectantly, he’s thinking he’s in for the best night of his life! Why do any of us sin at all? Because we think it’ll be fun. It ‘bewitches us with it’s honeyed speech.’ It’s like an obese man eating his fourth chocolate bar, a shopaholic buying one more handbag on her already maxed-out credit card, a womaniser looking at online porn or an addict looking for his next hit: sin looks attractive, we think it’ll be fun. (That’s why it’s tempting.)

“So when Eve saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Gen 3:6

People who enjoy sin believe it’s lies and empty promises of fulfillment that it can never deliver. They believe sin’s propaganda of bright, flashing lights that will leave them disappointed and unsatisfied every time. If we saw sin the way God sees it, the way it really is, if we knew that sin leads to death, and I mean really knew, then resisting temptation would be easy!

What starts out as just a little bit of fun too often ends up lording over you. Bit by bit it consumes you until it’s your master and you’re helpless to do anything about it. In yesterday’s post I said sin will always take you further than you wanted to go and make you pay more than you wanted to pay.

You’ll be glad to know that the great news is we do not have to be slaves to sin. There is a way to break free.

If I’m Saved Then Why Do I Still Sin?

“Yeah, yeah, I know all of that but if I’m a saved born-again Christian then why do I struggle with sin?”

Hear me out: Now you are a slave of righteousness. You’ve been totally transformed and transferred from darkness to light. Your life is split into sections: before Christ and now. Sin has got no say over you, none whatsoever. The only problem is in your head. It’s an identity crisis. You have been taken out of the land of sin and death, but sin and death is still in your thinking. You need to update your mindset. I can open the prison doors but if the prisoner has been in that prison for so long and become institutionalised then he’ll sit there. He still sees himself as a prisoner behind bars. Stop thinking of yourself this way.

Look in the mirror, eyeball to eyeball. Do you see who you really are? You are a son or daughter of the Most High King of the Universe and He knows you. This is your identity. God’s opinion is the only one worth knowing. You’re free, you’re empowered, you’re accepted. You’re identity is in Christ Jesus – you are the very righteousness of God. He knows how to spell your name, He knows what you did last summer and He still loves you, believes in you, sees your potential.

Promise me this: do not focus on your failings and mistakes, lift up your eyes to Christ in the heavenly places. If you stumble, immediately thank Jesus for the cross, look up, and let your heart overflow with praise and thanksgiving. It’s not about you, it’s about God! God is so good to us and only by His grace can any of us stand – He is glorious!

Sin loses it’s power when we see it how it is and we see ourselves the way we are – the very righteousness of God.

Benefits Street – it’s One Way and Dead-End

DAY 6 – PROVERBS 6

lazy

ˈleɪzi/

adjective 1. unwilling to work or use energy

As I type this my Twitter account is full of tweet-rants about the Channel 4 show ‘Benefits Street’; a documentary series which claims to reveal the reality of life on benefits about people who don’t work. In this economic climate people are angry that hardworking taxpayers’ money goes to fund the plasma screens, cans of beer and cigarettes of those who refuse to work.

Of course there are people in genuine need and have no other alternative but I wonder what percentage could work but choose not to. How many just can’t be bothered? How many simply have no drive, no motivation, no ambition, no reason to get out of bed on a morning?

Being a resident of Benefits Street means you have an entitlement mentality; you wrongly assume that society owes you one. Why not let everyone else do all the work while you play GTA on your new Xbox?

“Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.”

Living on ‘Benefits Street’ has no benefit whatsoever. I promise you! Proverbs 6:6-11 says if we live lazy lives then we’ll end up dirt-poor. Here it is:

“You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions.

 So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed?A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent house guest.”

When I lived in Thailand I was amazed that if I left just one tiny biscuit crumb for even 3 minutes, you would see a line of ants charging out of the hairline crack in the wall. Ants are fascinating creatures and the epitome of diligence! Have you ever watched them? They work constantly and they’re unstoppable. They stockpile food, meaning they work towards a long-term goal.

A lazy person does the opposite; they think of the here and now and put off everything until tomorrow. The problem is: tomorrow never comes.

It’s easy to drive past the Post Office dole queue on a Monday morning thinking that we’re not like those people but we need to be careful. We need to keep guard because, we’ve read it already: Proverbs 6 says it starts by ‘a nap here, a nap there’ – it’s gradual.

It’s easy to plateau when we’ve done well for a while, but we always need to be pushing ourselves onto the next goal. Many an army has been defeated after they overthrew the city because they grew complacent and comfortable. Don’t let your greatest defeat come straight after your greatest success! Praise God for what He’s done, celebrate, then put the balloons away and press on up. Always growing, always advancing, going from strength to strength is our adventure. The spoils of war, the lessons learned from our past battles spur us on to win the next. The victories of yesterday are the platform we stand on to launch us head on into today.

So come on, let’s step it up. I’m bored with playing games, paddling like a girl in the shallow end, it’s time to get serious. I’m ready for whatever challenges 2014 has to throw at me. I know who my God is and I’m going all the way. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and this is your time to get out of your comfort zone, take the challenge and overcome.

Wherever you are, say: This is my year. With God’s help I will decide, I will commit, I will achieve.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Scripture – Psalm 91: 9-10 “Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near…”

Observation –

‘Dwelling place‘  – home, where one takes residence, the environment or habitat of a person.

‘To dwell‘   – to live, to reside, to exist in a given place or state, to fasten one’s attention.

If I make my Lord God the place I live, my home and safe-place refuge then no evil will have it’s way. In other words, God’s will will always be done in me and through me. God is excited about the prospect of me finding my purpose, of me  giving life and hope to others and making a real lasting difference, living a life of significance. God passionately wants me to walk towards a future bright with hope and significance.

Application –  I need to make God my central living headquarters; his Word needs to be on my mind and in my heart, I need to talk to him always, recognising and acknowledging him at every step.

Prayer – Father be my safe refuge and dwelling place, my strong hold and high tower. I belong with you and wants to spend time with getting to know you better and live with you ever closer. In you I put my trust and hope. May I know you more and fall in love with you more each day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.