As believers who possess the God-given power of speech, often what we say reflects our character, for either good or bad. Someone with good character demonstrates moral excellence, honesty, and trustworthiness; the opposite is also true. There’s a connection between inward character and outward confessions that most people are unaware of. Understanding how the things we confess powerfully shape our lives will keep us extra vigilant about the things we say.
Careless speaking hurts others and is a stumbling block for us. What we speak can pierce like a sword. We’re warned to put away anger, wrath, malice, and everything inside that can lead to filthy communication coming out of our mouth. God tells us to put away all bitterness, clamor, and evil speaking and let no corrupt communication proceed from our mouth, only speaking what edifies others so that it can minister grace to the hearer.
It's never a good idea to make a poorly thought-out verbal agreement with someone. What we hastily declare without thinking can come back on us. Despite any good intentions we may have, we trap ourselves by our agreement and we’re caught by what we’ve said. The end result is that we’re at the other person’s mercy.
We guard against the traps we can set with our mouth by letting God’s Word of grace govern our confessions. It has the power to shape not only our speech, but our character as well. This is especially important considering the negative, destructive world we live in. Finding the specific Scriptures on God’s love for us and His will for us to be empowered, successful, prosperous, happy, and at peace—and confessing them—gives us a supernatural advantage.
Being doers of God’s Word, not just hearers of it, keeps us from being deceived. Patterning what we say after what He has already said helps us do the right thing. What we confess puts great power in our mouth.
Prayer:
Lord, You gave us great power in our confessions. We’ll never be helpless in this world when we realize what we can accomplish by speaking Your Word. Thank You for giving us this powerful weapon. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Scriptures:
Proverbs 12:18
Colossians 3:8
Ephesians 4:29, 31
Proverbs 6:2, 3, NLT
James 1:22