Prayer: Gracious Jesus, I love words. I especially love the way you use words to bring me healing, freedom, and hope. You never shame me with words. You never manipulate me with words. You never hurt me with words. You never flatter me, but you do bring great encouragement. You never repeat my failures to others; you only bring my sin and brokenness to the throne of grace. You never say too much or too little. You neither mince words nor waste words. You alone have the words of life.
My prayer is simple yet necessary: grant me greater stewardship of my words, Jesus. As you speak to me, please speak through me. I'm painfully aware that my words can bring great harm and death, even as they can be a source of hope and life (Prov. 18:21). If I'm not careful, my words can have the effect of gangrene (Eph. 4:29).
You tell me that my words are a sure reflection of what's filling my heart: "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). So no mere promise to avoid gossip, idle chatter, reckless words, or coarse jesting will be enough. I must constantly be preaching the gospel to my heart. May the overflow of your grace be obvious to all. I want my tongue to be a scalpel for healing, Jesus, not a hammer for harm. I pray in your merciful name. Amen.
Candy's thoughts: Such a good prayer! I love how Scotty Smith describes God's words in both negative and positive aspects ("You never..." and "You bring me..."), and then he does the same for us ("gossip, idle chatter..." and "a source of hope..."). May we always remember that if we are tempted to speak words of harm, that at a minimum we would follow Job's good example and "...put my hand over my mouth" (Job 40:4a).
Such a great prayer it brings to mind the words of James: "Look at the ships also though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell!" V 4-6 Oh how this little member of my body has caused me so much trouble over time. Off of my tongue rolls praises to God and death to another person all within seconds of each other.
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