Okay, I know I already chose a "theme" for 2011, but can I choose an additional one? There's still time! (:
Theme #1 is Being. Theme #2?
Blessing.
The Lord has been teaching me so much about our spoken words. I wish I knew how many times He has had me tell people who are struggling with things to speak Truth out loud. To declare the Truth. It changes the "battle" when we say it out loud. Our spoken words are incredibly powerful. For good or evil.
The fact that words are so important shouldn't be a surprise when Christ, Himself, was The Word.
John 1:1-5 says this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Word was used to create everything. God spoke everything into being with The Word.
As we go about our days, taking care of all the things on our list of To Do's (meals, laundry, hugs, bills, putting band-aids on boo-boos) it can all seem so "physical", so "seen". Does that make sense? For me, I can be so very aware of my physical surroundings, needs, etc. that I forget what is truly real.
As physical beings, we sometimes forget that the physical world is not our true dwelling. C. S. Lewis says:
“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
And in the realm of our true existence, our words are incredibly important. Incredibly powerful. Not only are our words able to shine Light into the darkness, to do battle in the spirit, but they are also a tool we use to build. We have the ability to use our words to build up unseen places in the spiritual realm.
We all understand how certain words spoken to us as children remain with us throughout our lives. Each of us, I am sure, can point to a place in our past where either a curse or a blessing was spoken to us or over us that still ripples through our spirits today. The speaker of those words may not have understood the impact, lifelong impact, the words they were speaking would have on us, for good or evil. But there is no question that those words had a power in them that we still feel today.
Knowing that, we must be intentional. Especially as parents, but in all our relationships and encounters with others we must weigh carefully the import of our words.
James 3:9-12 says:
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Ephesians 4:29 says:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
If that is our standard, then we need to take it seriously. How do we only speak words that are helpful, that build up others according to their needs?
We learn to speak blessings.
The Power of Spoken Blessings by Bill Gothard is a wonderful tool to learn how to use this powerful gift, the gift of blessing those around us. It's only 85 pages long, but it has shown me so much. It is filled with stories, which I always love, about how words impacted lives. It shows, over and over again, how words changed lives. Sometimes they were words of cursing that destroyed the future of the person they were spoken over. Other stories tell how a single comment spoken in blessing over the life of a child changed the entire course of that child's life. Imagine. A single sentence of blessing.
How careless I have been. How unaware. I have not always used my words to bless. Thankfully, He is teaching me now. I want to be someone who speaks only words that are helpful for building others up. So, in addition to focusing for the year on the word Being, I also want to focus on the word Blessing.
May He, Who is the Source of all Blessings, fill your new year with Himself. May He be revealed everywhere you turn, in every thing you do. And may His richest Blessings be showered over you and those you love. And may you learn to speak blessings into the lives of all you meet.
Part II of this post will give more specifics.
(For some unknown reason, Blogger decided to double-space the last half of this post against my will. I tried to "undo" it, but Blogger is firmly convinced it should remain. Sorry. I'm not smart enough to outsmart Blogger.)
Next Posts on Spoken Blessings:
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