Do You Love Life?

1 Peter 3:10 For "He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile;

Guile is another way of saying treachery or deceit. In other words our spoken words are not full of truth but deceit.

I would say this; any words that are not uplifting, any words that are not edifying to the hearer, any words that are contrary to God’s words are deceitful. I would also say that days that are full of grief and sorrow, sickness and disease, broken relationships and destroyed families are not good days are they? Do you want to see good days? Do you love life?

Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

I would like to ask this question, if our words are not speaking life then what are they speaking? The opposite of life is always death. They never co-mingle. Life and death have nothing in common!

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Is this just an inconsequential saying that we can ignore, or is there really death and life in our words as the Scripture is saying?

Peter said that in order to see good days we had to keep our tongue under control and not speak deceit. I usually concentrate on the positive side of our words however there is a negative side as well that the Word of God talks about, so it needs to be addressed. It is easy when everything is going good to give God praise and say the right things, however when the trials of life come our way it is also just as easy to start complaining or speaking negative. I have learned to give God praise in the rough times as well as the good times. Recently this message was quickened in my spirit. A gentle reminder to keep my tongue.

These gentle reminders from the Holy Spirit will save us much grief if we will just pay attention to them.

How often do we just say what ever is on our mind? You might say well, I’m really not hurting any one. Really, you could be hurting yourself, your family, and loved ones with the very words you speak. Words have power to hurt as well as heal. I don’t know who originally said sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me, but I know they did not know the horrible hurt that can be inflicted by them.

Please consider this and start to take stock of your words, and realize that you are sowing seeds that most assuredly will germinate and grow. This is a very sobering thing to consider.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

I have seen so many Christians who are unconcerned about their words and never consider the real importance of idle talk or negative words. God’s Word has much to say about this and God has put a premium on words so we should learn to do so as well.

Psalms 15:4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

It goes on to say in vs. 5 that this person shall never be moved. I believe people are so careless about their words that they can not really have faith in their own words. I have seen this over and over and have even been there myself. How can you speak the word of God with Boldness and expect it to come to pass if you can not even honor your own words that you speak? The answer to that is that you can’t. How can you have faith in God who you have never seen if you are full of lying and deceit, you won’t and can’t.

People often blame God for their failures and get frustrated and will not admit that it could be them and not God who is to blame. We can not grow up if we will not acknowledge the truth, and if we don’t acknowledge the truth we can never be truly free in Christ.

There can never be good from evil speaking, none! I think every ones mother probably said this at one time or another, if you can’t say something good about someone don’t say anything at all.

Maybe our mothers didn’t know it, but this is a Scriptural principle in God’s Word.

Refrain your tongue from evil. They were saying nearly the same thing that James was saying, even if they didn’t realize it.