Read today’s texts first: Matthew 14-16
The pen might be mightier than the sword
but the tongue has them both beat!
but the tongue has them both beat!
I’ve often said to my kids, grandkids and students - “Watch Your Mouth” (it’s a message I’ve taught in chapel and in my class on Spiritual Formation). I like to center on the idea that “the tongue has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21). To illustrate how we can advance God’s Kingdom or Satan’s through our words, I will refer to Peter’s story in Matthew 16:15-23.
It begins with his confession that Jesus is the Son of the living God, which seemed to impress Jesus so much He dubbed Peter “the Rock.” And then we see this same Peter a few verses later taking Jesus aside to reprove Him for prophesying about His impending death. This impudence earns him a new nickname – stumbling block. In the first case, Jesus said that the Father had revealed this truth to Peter; in the second instance Jesus accused him of speaking for Satan, and that he did not have the mind of God.
It seems that we have both godly and ungodly thoughts bouncing through our brains, possibly even simultaneously. The thoughts are not the problem, but the expression of those thoughts can be. Jesus said it earlier in reference to the Pharisees: “what comes out his mouth, that is what makes him unclean” (15:11).
“Lord, of all the choices I make each day, none are more important than the words I choose to speak. May this day be one where I speak Your Words. I want my life to be positioned solidly on the Rock, instead of being a stone in someone else’s path.”
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