READ CHAPTER 21 OF PROVERBS ON YOUR OWN,
OR FOLLOW THE LINK HERE TO READ IT ONLINE!
VERSE TO MEMORIZE THIS WEEK:
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
But the Lord weighs the hearts.
But the Lord weighs the hearts.
To do righteousness and justice
Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
Proverbs 21:1-3 (NKJV)
Proverbs 21:23 “He who
guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles.” (AMP)
Proverbs chapter 21 has verses filled with wisdom, as is the
entire book of Proverbs. Verse 23 stood
out to me as I sought the Lord for this devotional to encourage the
readers. One important part of a
believer’s life is to speak the Word of God, as well as to know when to guard
the words that flow from one’s mouth.
This has been a passion for my life to speak life and encouragement to
others and to keep myself from speaking the opposite as in Proverbs 18:21 (Death and life in are in the power of the
tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof).
Everyone desperately
attempts to keep him- or herself out of trouble and to avoid the entanglement
of snares. As we guard our mouths, we
prevent forbidden fruit to proceed out of the door of our lips and the
consequence of our words we will not eat!
In 2 Peter 3:11, we are reminded that our conversation
should be holy: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.…” (KJV)
Our conduct has a lot to do with our conversation. Keeping our mouths lined up with the Word of
God will help us walk upright before Him.
As we guard our
mouths and keep from spouting idle or negative words, we are reminded that we
can speak life to ourselves; speak life to our future, and speak life over the
past…to your spouse, and to your family.
When we come to Jesus the reason we come with so much death
is because we have spoken so much negative junk (and death), not having an
awareness or teaching on the words of our mouth. As scripture shows us in Genesis, God created
everything we see with words. Additionally,
Jesus said my words are spirit and life.
In John 6:63 “It is
the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to
you are spirit, and they are life.”
(NKJV)
Life
is offered to you through the Word of God.
Life swallows up death. This is
an awesome revelation when one gets it. The life of God is on the inside of a born
again believer. Soak up that life. Darkness will never overcome life.
John
1:4-5 “In Him was Life, and the Life was
the Light of men. And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has
never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is
unreceptive to it].” (AMP)
Everything God has is greater than anything the devil has. Come to the Lord with every problem and every
misery – which are minor doses of death.
As a believer, part of the salvation
package that God gives us includes a
way to start conquering that death by speaking the word of God out of our
mouth. It is a two-edged sword and we
need to wield that sword out of our mouth.
I encourage you to spend time speaking the Word every
day. This should be part of your prayer
time. Say who you are in Christ. Speak out His Word about your situations. Find a scripture verse, a promise that you
can hold onto for your need. You can
edify yourself and speak life to yourself, to your family, to your children, to
your co-workers, to your neighbors, etc.
When you speak life to someone else – you get in on it. You EAT your words as in Proverbs 18:20-21. When you do not guard your mouths, you eat
death. When you are critical and
negative – you eat death. Believers need
to have a revelation of this concept.
This type of negative, criticizing speech creates a heaviness. However, when speaking the Word of God, the
mouth encourages, is positive, and brings life.
Remember there is no need to speak the problem. We need to speak the
Word.
Remember that you are a child of God, a Jesus girl, a King’s
kid. God speaks to us in our spirits and
He wants us to speak it out of our mouths.
Sometimes we get lazy and don't.
Then we let whatever run out
of our mouths. It is easy to say just
whatever we feel like saying but
before we speak, we should stop and think about what we are allowing to be
created with our words. I encourage you
to keep yourself from trouble by guarding your mouth. If you are not sure who you are in Christ, I
have attached verses at the end of this devotional for you to look up and learn
how God sees you.
For further Study:
Prov 15:4
Rom. 12:21
Zech. 4:7
Mark 11:24
James 4:6
Prov 6:2
Prov 10:19
Prov 17:27-28
Isaiah 6:1- 9
Scriptures: Who you are in Christ
IN
CHRIST
Romans 3:24 Gal.
2:4
Romans 8:1,2 Gal.
3:26, 28 1
Thes. 4:16
Romans 12:5 Gal.
5:6 1
Thes. 5:18
1 Cor. 1:2 Gal.
6:15 1
Tim. 1:14
1 Cor. 1:30 Eph.
1:3, 10 2
Tim. 1:9
1 Cor. 15:22 Eph.
2:6, 10, 13 2 Tim.
2:1, 10
2 Cor. 1:21 Eph.
3: 6 2
Tim. 3:15
2 Cor. 2:14 Phil.
3:13, 14 Philemon
1:6
2 Cor. 3:14 Col.
1:28 2
Peter 1:8
2 Cor. 5:17, 19 2
John 1:9
IN
HIM
Acts 17:28 Col.
2:6, 7, 10 1
John 4:13
John 1:4 1
John 2:5, 6, 8, 27, 28 1 John
5:14, 15
John 3:15, 16 1
John 3:3, 5, 6, 24 1
John 5:20
2 Cor. 1:20
2 Cor. 5:21
Eph. 1;4, 10
Phil. 3:9
IN
THE BELOVED
Eph. 1:6
IN
THE LORD
Eph. 5:8 Eph.
6:10
IN
WHOM
Eph. 1:7, 11, 13 Eph. 3:12 Col. 2:3, 11
Eph. 2:21, 22 Col.
1:14 1
Peter 1:8
BY
CHRIST
Romans 3:22 2 Cor.
5:18 Phil.
4:19
Romans 5:15 Gal.
2:16 1
Peter 1:3
Romans 5:17-19 Eph. 1:5 1 Peter 2:5
Romans 7:4 Phil.
1:11 1
Peter 5:10
1 Cor. 1:4
BY
HIM
1 Cor. 1:5 Col.
1:16, 17, 20 Heb.
7:25
1 Cor. 8:6 Col.
3:17 Heb.
13:15
1
Peter 1:21
BY
HIMSELF
Heb. 1:3 Heb.
9:26
BY
HIS BLOOD
Heb. 9:11, 12, 14-15 Heb. 10:19-20 1 John 1:7
BY
WHOM
Romans 5:2, 11 Gal. 6:14
If there's one thing that's evident in our study of Proverbs this month it is how very important our words are. Great reference scriptures today!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff
ReplyDelete