The Weight Of The Words

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

The Power of Life and Death

When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light (Genesis 1:3). When He said, “Let the land produce living creatures,” it happened (Genesis 1:24). Just as God spoke life into existence, we have the same power to speak life into other people because we’ve invited Him into our hearts. It has been so sweet to see what God does through the simplest encounters I have. I have passed by precious folks and told them that their hair looked nice, that they looked beautiful that day, and that they were awesome, and countless times I have had people come up to me to let me know that that simple encounter completely turned their day around.

Our words hold so much value and weight. It can take many compliments to balance out one negative remark. It is crazy how if we post something on social media and bucketloads of comments are filled with positivity and love, it’s still the one negative comment that we remember. So remember that it also works the other way around—we have the power to speak death into others too. The power of life and death is in our tongues (Proverbs 18:21).

Scripture teaches us to treat others the way that we would want to be treated and that kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Matthew 7:12; Proverbs 16:24). Words that are wholesome benefit those who are listening (Ephesians 4:29). You have the power to speak light and life and benefits and healing and sweetness into the hearts of those around you. The amazing gifts that dwell within you were not meant to be kept to yourself. Jesus spoke, and there was healing. Jesus spoke, and the dead rose to life. He spoke, and hearts of stone were changed to hearts of flesh. Jesus spoke, and joy replaced sorrow. Jesus spoke, and encouragement demolished discouragement. He spoke, and miracles defeated the situations that seemed impossible to overcome. He spoke, and wisdom rebuked foolishness, truth claimed victory over deceit, dry souls were refreshed, insecurity was conquered with genuine confidence, and love spoke unfailing power over hatred.

Speak Life over Others

Before Jesus went back to heaven, He told the disciples that we would do the works He did and that even greater things shall be done (John 14:12)! Such beauty did not happen only in the Bible—the Bible is alive and active today, living in you. Because of Jesus, you can speak healing and joy and encouragement and love and life and confidence and refreshment and truth and wisdom and miracles over those around you. This can be as simple as telling someone how lovely their smile is, how beautiful they are, how proud you are of them, how much God loves them. Speaking life into someone can be the sweet genuineness of asking them how their day is going and truly caring.

After I meet people, I often pray, God, please help me to remember their fantastic name, because I know that God calls me by name and this is so significant. So that is something I want to do for others—I want to call them by their anointed and special name. Everyone has priceless beauty fearfully and wonderfully knitted within them (Psalm 139:13-14), but so many have no idea that this beauty exists. As God’s chosen people, we are called to be the ones who let others know how beautiful they are because God made them that way.

Speak Life over Yourself

We have the power of life and death in the words that we are speaking over others—but also over ourselves. We listen and dwell on the words that we speak over ourselves, and these words hold great significance. I know that sometimes the words that I speak over myself are not words of light, and they can be very hurtful and mean. To speak plainly, when I do this, I am speaking death over myself. Whether or not I realize it, this is very powerful. But there is greater power in speaking words that are wholesome and that benefit our listening ears.

There is power in believing that we are who God says we are, and we find freedom and life when our conversations with ourselves align with the words that God speaks over us. May the words we speak over ourselves and the words that we speak over others benefit those who listen.