Devotions: Words of Choice

With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor,
But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.

Proverbs 11:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Words can be so destructive. In the book of James the tongue is described as a flame that burns a forest. The smallest word can cause innumerable damage. In the same way that the flame from a single match can start a wildfire, so the smallest word can cause immense harm. There is an old saying that sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me, but it is not true. Broken bones may hurt, but they heal infinitely more easily than a broken heart. Even words that are unintentionally harmful can cause great damage. In Matthew, Jesus said that we will have to give an account for every careless word we speak. Of course it is worse if we intentionally harm someone with what we say, but we need to be careful that we don’t harm someone by accident as well. It happens often, and usually we have no idea we have done it. We need to be like the righteous man who uses knowledge (a.k.a. restraint from yesterday) to be delivered rather than inadvertently destroying others like a godless person. We need to be so careful, and if we do hurt someone we need to make it right. We need to accept our wrong and apologize rather than defend our right of speech. What do your words say about you? Do they denote you as being righteous or godless? Ask God to help you control your words and use them to build and not destroy.