Words of Wisdom Wednesday - Speak Life
What was the last positive thing you said? What about the last positive thing someone said to you? If you needed to wrack your brain, it probbbbbably means that you indeed live on this world. This ugly, messy, depressing world. Okay, okay, not all is terrible, but I can get down on this world sometimes. There’s just scandal after scandal, violence after violence, that it can just drag me down, you know?
Living in this digital world, it’s easy to forget ourselves and hastily judge others when we don’t know the full story. It’s easy to text something negative in person rather than say it to their face, or comment something judgmental on their post rather than tell them in person. And just look at mainstream media. They focus a whole lot on the ugly, which honestly gets depressing. No, our world isn’t getting better, but we can definitely shine lights to others by speaking life to them. Guess what? Your friend over there probably already knows how to fix their problem. Who knows why they might appear to not be moving forward, but sometimes what that friend needs in their day is a little encouragement.
What if one person decided not to judge someone that actually deserved to be judged? What if that inspired others to be uplifting as well, and they started encouraging others around them? Forget the what-ifs…this already happened. Christ didn’t judge us even though we totally, utterly deserved it. He inspires me and you to encourage others and speak life into others lives as well. Who knows how He uses me to influence. Friends, words have power. So choose to speak life.
What if one person decided not to judge someone that actually deserved to be judged? What if that inspired others to be uplifting as well, and they started encouraging others around them? Forget the what-ifs…this already happened. Christ didn’t judge us even though we totally, utterly deserved it. He inspires me and you to encourage others and speak life into others lives as well. Who knows how He uses me to influence. Friends, words have power. So choose to speak life.
I’m a pessimist. I’m also the firstborn. Those put together, added to my stronger personality (ahem…😳) and my spiritual gifts of teaching/pastoring often lead to me criticizing and judging others. It’s not okay and I apologize to anyone I’ve offended in that way, but we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Speaking life is a struggle for me when things aren’t going my way. It’s hard to do the right thing when everything seems wrong. But you know what? Oftentimes those hard things have a great reward at the end of the road.
My pastor has been challenging us to speak life to others rather than speak words of death that can drag others down. We don’t know how much our words affect the next person. You have no idea whether or not that person is going through depression or couldn’t care less about what others think. Besides that, God calls us to speak life as well:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (Ephesians 4:29).
So what now? I urge you,
SPEAK LIFE when things are going great.
SPEAK LIFE when you feel discouraged.
SPEAK LIFE when nothing is going your way.
SPEAK LIFE when things are going great.
SPEAK LIFE when you feel discouraged.
SPEAK LIFE when nothing is going your way.
SPEAK LIFE when you’re happy.
SPEAK LIFE to shine that beautiful light God gave you.
SPEAK LIFE to shine that beautiful light God gave you.
Have a blessed week, and dare to speak life in all situations!
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