Perverse Mouth

Perverse mouth!

Proverbs 18:13”The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate.”

Recently I was traveling in the car with a young man, who is in the ministry, reads several scriptures everyday, regularly fasts and preaches the Gospel too; however, when he received a call on his mobile, he attended the call and snapped back saying, ‘I am held up in the traffic signal and will call back later.’ I turned to him and said, ‘but we are not waiting near the traffic signal, why did you say that?’ Very coolly he replied, ‘she would not disconnect the phone if I don’t give her that answer, I replied, ‘but isn’t that a lie?’ He did not answer. I said, ‘as Christians and also serving the Lord in some capacity, we need to hold our tongue from every form of falsification and deception, he reluctantly agreed. At times, such advice from me irritates the young people because they think, ‘why make a big issue out of such trivial matters?’ But listen, today the above scriptures says, ‘God hates perverse mouth!’

With so much of talking, chatting and discussions going on around us in the form of talk-shows, reality shows and what not…..this topic of controlling our mouth sure needs attention, today you can become popular and you can earn a lot of bucks if you have the gift of the gab. Isaiah cried: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5) Mark the words, “I dwell in the midst of unclean lips!” How very true! Recently while I was traveling in the train, a young girl was struggling to get her ticket confirmed, an elderly hindu man who was reading a spiritual book for several hours looked at her and said boisterously, ‘show the ticket collector a hundred rupee note and you can get your ticket confirmed.’ I wondered what did he achieve from reading those spiritual books for that many hours! But look what the Bible says: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”(Proverbs 18:21) Caution! Let your words be few and true!

What would you do when you are asked your experience in a particular field? You have a choice of uttering a bundle of lies by just hiking up the experience period and also including some technical qualifications which you do not have at all. Are you there? Look what the Bible says: “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. “ (Isaiah 59:4) I am speaking to someone out there? Search your resume with the microscope and remove the lies in order for God to remove curses from your life.

Friend, let your speech be ‘golden!’ Remove harsh language, coarse language, deceit, hurtful words, bitter words, boastful words and cunning words. Let your words be pleasant ! “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:24) It requires an endless supply of energy, a massive amount of patience and iron will to control our unbridled tongue in this world. Let’s do it!

Let”s pray like Psalmist David: “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3)