SCRIPTURE  FROM:   James 3:7-10 (TPT)

TEXT:  ⁷ For every wild animal on earth including birds, creeping reptiles, and creatures of the sea and land have all been overpowered and tamed by humans, ⁸ but the tongue is not able to be tamed. It’s a fickle, unrestrained evil that spews out words full of toxic poison! ⁹ We use our tongue to praise God our Father and then turn around and curse a person who was made in his very image! ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth we pour out words of praise one minute and curses the next. My brothers and sister, this should never be!

OBSERVATION:   Isn’t it amazing when you visit a zoo, or a marine park, to see how man has been successful in taming and training almost any animal? From the smallest to the largest, they aim to please man, and do what he has trained them to do! However, as our Scripture reminds us today, let’s direct our attention to mankind and find someone who could train one of the smallest parts of the human body, the tongue. It is impossible to find that trainer who could accomplish such a feat. Let’s have a closer look at this today and try to understand why God found it so important to include this teaching in His Word for us!

APPLICATION:   There was once a trial where the defendant was found guilty of multiple murders. When asked why he did these atrocious crimes, the defendant told the judge that it was because ‘the devil made me do it’. Why then do we say some of the hateful, or hurtful, or dishonoring things that we do? Then with the same tongue, sing such beautiful, awesome praises to our King with such meaningful intent, melodious tones and harmonious sounds? The innocent, and those void of Scriptural understanding, may question: how could this possibly be? Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45 tells us that the mouth will speak what the heart is full of. So instead of examining the value, or the threat/danger of the tongue, it seems to me that we should concentrate on, and examine the heart of a person. An example of this was portrayed in a real-life scenario from my past. A new pastor came to our church, and to everyone’s shock, he wound up getting along best with an individual who often ran people off because of his words that were often blurted out before he took time to think about it. When asked for the secret to his success in this situation, the new pastor responded that he simply looked at the heart of the person. For in spite of the words that spewed from the mouth of the individual, they had a heart of gold for God and His church. Wow! Wouldn’t that practice help us solve a lot of issues around our churches, and even our lives in general, if we practiced that philosophy? Friends, I would dare say that many of the issues that cause church division, family divisions and falsely judging another person, comes from the crazy things that are uttered from the mouths of ‘saints’ at times. Please allow me to suggest that we look inwardly and correct the inner man first. In other words, allow God’s Word to invade us, and attack our judgmental attitudes, and fill our hearts with a desire to read His Word often, and very carefully compare our personal thoughts and actions with those expected of us by our King. If we work on ‘self’, and encourage others to do the same, it is easy to see that there won’t be a need for us to interfere and try to correct someone else! As we allow God sincere control of our lives, He will do the correcting of bad habits and a gossiping tongue!

PRAYER:   Precious Lord, I believe that Your Word hit on the most challenging thing that impacts the witness of Your church, and that causes the unbeliever to block us out when we try to share Your love with them. Please Lord, again today, reach into our hearts and make us concentrate on what is worthy, loving, true, pure and filled with Your grace. You loved us enough to actually die for our sin. We have a full time responsibility to praise You, thank You, and love You, so much that our lives would exemplify You in everything we do or say. Please let us concentrate on building You up, and not tearing others down. AMEN!  

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’.  If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Sebring, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!