Read: Psalm 64:1-10 & Galatians 5:13-26
Just because we have free speech and unlimited talk and text, doesn’t mean we have to use them. The tongue is the fastest healing body part, but the horrible words we form with it can deeply wound the people around us. At times, my mouth gets ahead of my brain, causing me to wonder if my tongue is saved.
Galatians 5:14 commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” To make this love a habit, we must develop the habit of loving people with our words. It’s easy to find faults in everyone, even ourselves. But love doesn’t publicly expose our faults; it covers them. Cultivating this type of love takes effort on our part. As we read the Bible every day, we’re renewing our hearts and minds. When we fill ourselves with love, joy and peace from God’s Word, love, joy and peace are much more likely to flow from our mouths when we speak.
My parents often said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” My heavenly Father has the same advice. Let’s make praise our habit (Psalm 64:10), so the hope within us imprints on others as we speak and we leave a fuller knowledge of Jesus with everyone we meet.
