PROVERBS 18:1-8, 20-21
Nelson Mandela, who battled the South African apartheid regime and was imprisoned for almost three decades, understood the strength of words. He is often quoted today, yet while he was in prison, his words could not be quoted by the people for fear of being punished. Ten years after being freed, he declared: “It is never my custom to use words lightly.” “If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.”
King Solomon, who composed the majority of the Proverbs book in the Old Testament scriptures, frequently wrote about the influence of words. It is possible for words to have either positive or negative effects. They have the potential to give life through encouragement and honesty or to crush and kill through lies and gossip. How can we be certain that the words we speak will be good and result in good things? The only way is by carefully guarding our hearts (Proverbs 4:23).
Jesus has the power to change our hearts so that our words are always at their best—honest, focused, acceptable, and situation-appropriate.
🙏🏻 Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
