The Power Of Words

The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James 3:5-6 (NIV)

The old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” doesn’t hold up. Words can cause wounds that are deep and crippling, though unseen. These wounds, left untended, can be like an ulcer on the soul—spilling poisonous bile a little at a time until the cumulative effect is disabling.

God created words, of course, and designed them to be powerful. Our words are modeled after his. Our words are a scaled down version, to be sure, but still we were created by a speaking God who made us in his image. His words created the earth. His words ordered cells and molecules into alignment. His words sustain the earth and keep the planets in their orderly rotation.

He gave us words. Our tongues deliver those words into the lives of others. Because God does not command us to do what he cannot empower us to do, I believe we can take James 3:5-6 as a promise that our tongues can be put at the Spirit’s disposal to be his instruments of hope and encouragement.

Words, once spoken, live on. Those words you speak to your teenager, thinking they are going in one ear and out the other? They are landing and making themselves a home. The words you thought you could throw out in a huff and apologize for later? They’ve carved out a nook and settled in. The words of kindness and encouragement that seemed to be ignored? They are fertilizing dreams.

Make it your goal to speak into others’ lives such a preponderance of uplifting, encouraging words that they will eventually tip the balance and move a life from discouragement to hope.

Father, change my heart so profoundly that the words that flow from it are your healing, uplifting words.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Blaise Pascal(1623–1662), French mathematician and philosopher