Devotions: Honey to the Soul

 

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24 New American Standard Bible 1995

 

Honey has long been used as a metaphor for the good life. The Promised Land was described as flowing with milk and honey. It is sweet and tasty but also revitalizing. It is often used in natural medicine to give strength and energy to women in labor. It is tasty and life giving. So too are pleasant words. The word pleasant can also mean agreeable, beautiful, suitable, or delightful. Words spoken that are agreeable, beautiful, suitable or delightful are sweet (satisfying) as well as life giving. Words have that power, to give life or destroy it. However, it is not enough to say that all agreeable or beautiful words give life. Sometimes those words are poison because they are manipulative or untrue. In order to be like honey, these pleasant words must also be wise (pr 24:13-14). They need to be saturated with God’s word, knowledge and guidance, both in what is said but also in the life of the one who says it. It is possible to give good advice and have it do more harm than good because the speaker said it at the wrong time or in the wrong way (i.e. it was unsuitable.) God’s judgment and truth is described as being sweeter than honey (ps 19:10) so our words must be steeped in His truth. They should also be pure (Pr 15:26.) Wisdom cannot be tainted by the world, especially by sin. The same goes for truth. If anything is to be pure, wise, or of God, it cannot have the world mixed in with it. Nothing of the world is truly beautiful or life giving. It only brings death. If our words are to be tasty and life giving, they must be wise, truthful and pure. Yet, our words cannot be that if our lives are not as well, for what proceeds out of the mouth is a reflection of the heart. If our words are to be like honey, then our hearts must be pure and saturated with God’s truth and wisdom. We cannot have that and live in sin or compromise. We have to seek godliness above all else.

How are your words? Do they speak life or death? Are they sweet or sour? Are they pleasant or ugly and unsuitable? Ask God to open your heart and reveal what needs to be cleansed and purged. Ask Him to make your heart pleasant like honeycomb so that the words you speak will give life and be pleasant to all who hear them.

 

 

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Translations of Greek and Hebrew words taken from blueletterbible.org