[Faith-talk] FW: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] Hold your tongue by Joyce Meyer

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "Donna" <godsgirl54 at att.net>
To: <URCTCPrayerGroup2 at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] Hold your tongue by Joyce Meyer
Date: 
Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:17:22 -0500

Hold Your Tongue
by Joyce Meyer - posted November 28, 2011 


Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart
from evil and do good; seek, inquire for, and crave peace and pursue (go
after) it!
-Psalm 34:13-14

"You really have the gift of gab," one man told me many years ago, when I
first started in the ministry. He had pointed out something that I already
knew: God had given me "a ready tongue," that is, I speak easily. Words are
my tools. The Lord first gave me that gift, and then He called me into the
ministry to use that ability to work for Him. 

I have no trouble talking. That's my gift; that's also been my greatest
problem. Because I seem to always have something to say, I have struggled
many, many years over the right use of my tongue. 

It has not been an easy battle. 

Over the years, I heard various people saying things like, "Hold your
tongue." "Do you have to speak every word that comes to your mind?" "Do you
always speak first and think later?" "Must you sound so harsh?" Had I truly
listened to what people were saying, I might have realized that God was
trying to tell me something. But I ignored their comments and continued in
my own stubborn ways. 

I know I have wounded people with my words in the past, and I am sorry
for that. I'm also grateful that God has forgiven me. 

Several years ago, I realized that if God was going to use my life, I had
to gain control of my tongue-not to just stop talking, but to keep my
tongue from evil, and my lips from speaking deceit, as the psalmist David
says. 

I had a choice. I could hurt people with my words-and I could do that
well-or I could bring my lips into subjection to God. Obviously, I wanted
to be subject to the Lord, but it was still a battle. 

Our words are expressions of our hearts-of what's going on inside us. If
we want to know who a person really is, all we need to do is listen to
their words. If we listen long enough, we learn a lot about them. 

As I learned to listen to my own words, I also began to learn a lot about
myself. Some of the things I learned did not please me, but they did help
me realize that I had a character flaw that needed to be addressed. My
words were not pleasing God, and I wanted them to. Once I confessed my
failure to God, the victory came-not all at once and not perfectly, but God
is patient with me. I'm growing, and part of my growth is keeping my lips
from evil. 

No matter how negative you are or have been, or how long you've been that
way, God wants to change you. In the early days after my confession to God,
I still failed more often than I succeeded, but every time I did succeed, I
knew I was closer to God's plan for my life. God can do the same for you. 

It won't be easy, but you can win. And the effort will be worth it. 

Prayer: Lord, help me use my mouth for right things. Put a watch over my
mouth lest I sin against You with my tongue. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You. I ask it in Jesus'
wonderful name. Amen. 





God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a
very present and well-proved help in trouble. Ps 46:1