We Talk Too Much

This could be a problem. Consider this. You have seven holes in your head. (Interesting – the number of perfection.) Two for smelling, 2 for hearing, 2 for seeing, and ONLY ONE for speaking.

Here are some Scriptures about talking too much:

“He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.” Proverbs 21:23

“He who guards his lips guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.” Proverbs 13:3

“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.” Psalm 34:13

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21

All of these Scriptures are about what we speak, not what we hear. What we see and hear does affect us, but it’s not a life and death issue like what we speak.

Now here’s a question: is “writing” the same as speaking? I think it is. It is your words going out to someone else. A venomous spirit has cut loose in the world today, a sense of license that we can say anything or write anything we want and it doesn’t matter, because it’s our right to “free speech” and anything else is censorship.  But it’s not really “free” if it brings bondage.

Every word we speak and every word we write represents our heart. It represents our motive. We actually release “spirit” when we speak. It’s our spirit, but when it is in agreement with the evil around us, this can very easily represent evil spirits as well. There is evil present in our world trying to affect us. Satan is never far off. The evil stirring in our thoughts and feelings comes from him.

When we cooperate with the evil spirit of the age in our speaking or in our writing, it is destructive! Regardless of our moods or our feelings, we should control our words. If not, there will be consequences.

Every time we release evil form our lips or our pens and computers, we empower that evil in our own hearts. We cannot excuse this evil as mere words. “Life and death” is not in our ears – they are in our speech, whether spoken or written.

Do we really want to bring death to ourselves and to others? We cannot utter evil without that evil assaulting our own souls.

We talk and write far too much that is not thought out. We are so comfortable speaking, we have forgotten that every word we speak we will give an account for. Jesus said, “And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Matthew 12:36-37.

We Jesus-followers might be talking too much. We might be “shooting ourselves in the foot” with our careless words. If we will listen to the Holy Spirit, He will help us control our speech and our writing.

Life and death are in our words. It’s our choice what goes out of our mouths and out of our devices. Maybe we should say less and listen more!