Word Power

The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain.

Proverbs 10:11

I don’t think I have to convince you what power words wield. When you think back to eventful moments in your life, there were likely words involved, either encouraging or discouraging. Those words had power. They perhaps changed your course. Words are amazing deadly weapons or great healers.

Words have to be managed carefully. Once spoken, a word can’t be unspoken. Words take on lives of their own. If you let words fly in the heat of the moment, someone will have to heal from their impact. You can say, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean that!” but the words are out, and they live on in the mind and heart of the person to whom you spoke them. No wonder the Word of God is jam-packed with warnings about using words prudently.

Words have the power to tear down, but they also have the power to build up. God can empower our words so that one small word can redirect the trajectory of a life: “The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary” (Isaiah 50:4, NIV). An instructed tongue. Not a wild, untamed tongue or a go-its-own-way tongue. A trained, disciplined, controlled tongue. God wants you to speak words taught you by the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 2:13).

The Father wants to speak his healing, encouraging, strengthening, eternal, life-giving words through your mouth. He wants to instruct your tongue. The astonishing power of his Word will accomplish what he desires and purposes. Make it your goal to speak into others’ lives such an abundance of uplifting, encouraging words that they will eventually tip the balance and move a life from discouragement to hope.

Lord, so fill my heart with your Word that it overflows from my mouth. Make my words healing. Edit out any hurtful or damaging words, and let my remaining words be a fountain of life.

Give my words wings, Lord. May they alight gently on the branches of men’s minds bending them to the winds of Your will. May they fly high enough to touch the lofty, low enough to breathe the breath of sweet encouragement upon the downcast soul.

Jill Briscoe, contemporary British-American author and speaker