What Your Tongue Says About You
There have been countless sermons preached on the power of the tongue. I have preached a few of them myself over the years and many of those sermons were talking about how what we say affects other people and that’s very important because what we say to and about other people is incredibly powerful both in a positive way and in negatives ways as well.
But today I want to talk to you all about what your tongue says about you and to you. And this aspect of controlling this small body part is also incredibly powerful and it can be used in both positive and negative ways too.
There are a multitude of Scripture verses that speak to us about how the tongue can either be used for good or bad in our lives and the lives of those around us. But before we get to what our tongues say about ourselves I want to pause and look at where what the tongue says comes from.
There are basically two parts of us where our speech originates from, our hearts and our minds. The heart and mind are so important that God says that we are to love Him with all of hearts, all of our souls, with all of our minds and with all of our strength. It is into our hearts that we have to ask Jesus to come and live within us. Ultimately what we say comes directly from what we think at any given time but the heart also plays a part because the Bible tells us that out of the overflow of our hearts the mouth speaks. And one reason that the heart is so important to what we say to ourselves and about ourselves is because that’s where our emotional center is. Like when we tell someone that we love them with all of our heart for example or that we hate someone these two ends of the emotional spectrum come from the heart and the heart is directly connected to our minds and then to our tongues.
The Bible is very clear about how important our speech is to all of us and in Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21 we read this: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Now that’s pretty dramatic isn’t it? Or is it? Our words do have the power of life and death. Some words that people speak lead to the killing, physically, of lots and lots of people. Adolf Hitler’s words when he ordered the deaths of over 6 million Jews had the power of life and death in them and he chose death.
But there is also the power of spiritual life and spiritual death or at least spiritual sickness with our words too. And I’m not talking about words from someone else to us at this point I’m talking about what our hearts, minds, and tongues say about each of us. We all know how much it hurts when someone says something to us or about us that is hurtful whether it’s directly to us or when someone is gossiping about us and telling others something about us that they shouldn’t be telling and we hear about it. We don’t like how that makes us feel very much do we?
Well, now we’re going to get to point of this message. If we all don’t like what others say to us or about us that is hurtful and is meant to tear us down then why do we do these same things to ourselves with our own words and thoughts?
And don’t sit there and think that you don’t do this on one level or another because at times we ALL do this to ourselves. And I’m not talking about joking about ourselves like we all do sometimes either. Be honest with yourself right now and think of some of the things that you have told yourselves that were negative and harsh.
Things like I’m worthless, nobody really loves me, nobody really understands me, I’m useless, I’m not a good person, I’m a bad wife or husband, I’m a bad Dad or I’m a bad Mom, I messed up again so God can’t still love me, I could go on and on but you get the idea. These thoughts are not godly thoughts and God really doesn’t want you thinking them and He really doesn’t want you to say them to yourself either.
If other people said these things to us we would probably be pretty upset with whoever said them wouldn’t we? Then my question to you is then why are you saying them to yourself and about yourself? Now, I’m not saying that you should get mad at yourself for saying these kinds of things to yourself but I am saying that we need to get a handle on where these thoughts are coming from and what can we do to stop them from becoming things that we say to ourselves on a regular basis.
I said earlier that our thoughts come from our hearts and our minds and then they are said to either others or to ourselves in either speech or thoughts and it’s our thoughts that I want to focus on here for a while. Our thought lives are critically important to our spiritual lives and well being. What we think about ourselves can influence our moods, how our day flows, how we feel about ourselves at any given time.
And just like we have to learn to control our tongues physically like it says in James chapter 3 verses 2-12 we read this about the tongue: 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
James doesn’t give us a very pretty picture of the tongue here does he? One key part of this Scripture passage that I want us to really focus on is the towards the end where James talks about how we use our tongues to both praise God and curse God. Can a spring produce both sweet and bitter water out of the same spring? Of course it can’t.
But we do this all the time and not just to God but to ourselves. There are times when we try to encourage ourselves with our thoughts and actions but there are also times, and I would be willing to say more times than not, we tear ourselves down with the same mind, heart, and tongue that we try to encourage ourselves with and that is just not the way it should be in our minds and in our hearts.
We can be so hard on ourselves that when we get done berating ourselves that it feels like we just took a beating from satan himself. Oh, wait a minute we DID just take a beating from satan himself! When you are alone and it’s just you and your thoughts, and these thoughts turn to the negative side guess who’s there pushing you to think that way? Is it God? Absolutely not! It’s satan and he is a master at getting you to think that you are worthless, that you don’t matter to anyone, that what you just did is bad enough for God to stop loving you, that you’re not pretty or handsome, that you’re overweight, etc. We have got to stop letting satan control what we think and what we say to ourselves about ourselves.
Well, how do we do that? In 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5 we read this: We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…
In other words we are, from now on, going to start to discipline ourselves to take control of our thoughts and what we tell ourselves about ourselves and we need to start doing this ASAP. The enemy isn’t messing around here and he knows that if he can control a Christian’s thought life then he pretty much has control over them period.
When you are alone and you begin to go down that dark thought path will you please do what this verse of Scripture says to do? Will you take those thoughts captive and just ask yourself a simple question is this what God wants me to be thinking about myself right now? Or is this what the enemy wants me to believe about myself right now. It won’t come easy because for a lot of us here we have been thinking negatively about ourselves for a long time but it’s time to stop and it’s time to realize just who you are in Christ Jesus.
God wants you to think about good things like it says in Philippians chapter 4 verse 8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. As a child of God you are worth everything to God and you are worth nothing to satan. So who do you want controlling your thought life God or satan?
What we think about ourselves is important. What we think about ourselves shapes who we are and how we feel. I hurt for Christians who have low self esteem partly because they are hurting and partly because I know that they are allowing satan to dictate what they think and feel about themselves rather than allowing God to dictate what think and feel about themselves. And believing the promises of God in the Bible about who we are to Him and in Him.
God tells us throughout the Bible how much He loves us and wants only the very best for us while satan on the other hand wants nothing more than your physical, emotional and mental health to be destroyed and he wants to accomplish this from the inside out. He will lie to you about who you are and what you mean to God while he is leading you deeper and deeper into a pit of despair. He will try to tell you that there is no way out of this pit so you might as well just learn to live in it and like it.
It’s time for that kind of stinkin’ thinkin’ stop and it has to stop now, today because your life may well depend on it. What satan is able to accomplish in the minds of people is one reason why there are so many suicides in this country. Satan uses smoke and mirrors and lies to trick people into thinking that they are truly trapped in whatever situation they find themselves in and then whispers in their ears that there is no way out why don’t you just end it!
That is not what God wants at all. God always has a way out for you. His love is more than enough to see you through whatever situation you may find yourself in today and in the future. God will do whatever it takes to protect His Children from the lies and hatred of the enemy.
How we feel about ourselves is based upon how close we want to listen to the Holy Spirit of God isn’t it? The Holy Spirit will always tell us the truth about who we are in Christ and He will always warn us when the enemy is attacking us from within and messing up our thought lives because our thought lives are directly connected to our physical lives and our spiritual lives and we have to really try hard to allow Jesus take away the thoughts that we have that are damaging to us and hurtful to us.
I love all of yall and I want you all to know that if you need to talk that I’m available and there your brothers and sisters in Christ here also who will be glad to talk with you as well. We are a family and when one of us hurts we all hurt.
God can heal your thought life and in the process He can heal all of you. Start telling yourself that you are a Child of the King of Kings instead of telling yourself that you are nothing and will always be nothing okay!? Which one is true? I guarantee that it’s not the latter description! Amen!?
