It's so important that we watch what we say.
Every thought that comes across our mind is not prudent to say aloud, and it is a practice in both, self control and faith to resist the urge to do so.
But why even bother?
Because our words carry power that we only marginally understand.
It is my belief that our lack of understanding is what keeps us stuck in our unpleasant life conditions longer than we need to be. This misunderstanding causes us to forget that how we feel about our situation, does not necessarily dictate the truth of that situation. And even more importantly, the only reason we stay stuck is because we don't believe that there is another, better way.
God has given us so much more power over our lives than we both carelessly misuse and unintentionally neglect.
First let's look at Romans 10:17 which says,
"So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."
Let's examine this believer, our faith is the most precious thing to us! Without faith we couldn't even call ourselves believers. So how do we keep our faith and get more? The scripture lays out the formula: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
The answer is almost too simple! We have to read our Bible! The more we read our Bible, the more ammunition we have against our feelings and the undesired state of our lives.
Where we are doesn't have to be where we stay, because it certainly isn't where we belong.
Once we know that the Bible says in Romans 10:17 that,
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
and in Romans 8:28 says,
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Whenever we're feeling down or discouraged we can speak these words out loud to give us faith, courage and strength to endure to our "expected end" (see Jer. 29:11).
The caveat is that we have to make a more practiced effort to not perpetuate our situations by speaking negatively about them. The key here is to acknowledge that things aren't going the way you want them to while speaking positively about the outcome. Otherwise we get stuck because we feel defeated and because we don't see the end of the situation we remain discouraged when we only talk about how bad we are doing.
Because your words have power and whatever you rehearse to yourself and aloud to yourself, is the reality that you're going to live out.
Even people who don't believe in God practice affirmations, because they understand that we have the power to shape our worlds with our mouths.
If they can do it, how much more effective can we be, we who believe and depend on the Master of the Universe?
I had to practice what I teach this past week and I chose to exercise my faith by writing both my frustration and my fear out in a poem:
Caution: Person is more fragile than she appears.
The fact of the matter is
I do not present as weak
And I refuse to be defined as helpless
I fight, claw and crawl to remain afloat
Which has been mistaken for innate strength
Yet,
I have never rescued myself
I take no credit for any of my victories
It has only been the love of my Heavenly Father that has carried me this far
At my lowest points He has reminded me
That I am never alone
And that His strength is made perfect
In every one of my weaknesses
It's because God lives in me that
I have been able to stand tall
Even when the strength has left my knees
Its this reason that those around me believe
That I'm ok, even when I'm on the brink of drowning
I turn to Him
And He guides me to safety
And presents me as strong
This is how I chose to acknowledge that I wasn't feeling very optimistic about my current state of being, but also having faith knowing that it wasn't up to me be OK.
When it comes to your life, all of your words are the most powerful words.
Be careful how you wield them.
Comments