JAMES DAY 17 PRAYER
Pray that you will have control over your tongue and that you will daily come before the Lord to be filled with His Love so that what flows out of your mouth will be His Love and His words. (James 3:2-12)
James 3:2-12 (New International Version)
2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
JAMES DAY 17 CHALLENGE
Well, I don’t know about you, but this section of James hits me like a brick wall. It brings to the front line for me a couple of things.
The first hit I receive from this section of James is “no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” This tells me that in my flesh, I have no power over my tongue. It tells me that I may be able to be nice for a moment, to say something appropriate on occasion, to give words of comfort and love on occasion, but I cannot consistently tame my tongue in all situations on my own. I am boldly reminded that without my heart being filled with God’s love and His Spirit I will “curse men.”
“Do I do this? I mean really? Come on Sara, we are not so brutal, so terribly evil, hurtful and nasty. I really think you are off the charts here and being extreme and not speaking about the majority of us who are believers.” Really? Does the tone of our voice, which is delivered from our tongue ever come across as demeaning, condescending, critical or judgmental? Do we ever gossip, even in our prayers? Do we talk about how people have hurt us to others without going directly to the person who has hurt us? Do we complain about things in our life, many of those things being great blessings and provisions from God our Father?
The second hit for me was “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” This tells me that my tongue can do a whole lot of damage not only to other people but also to me! “It corrupts the whole person.”
Our tongues, what comes out of them? Let today be a wake up call to see the absolute importance of the words that come out of our mouth. Let us cry out to our Heavenly Father for our tongues to be controlled by the Spirit and that we will daily ask to be filled with His Love.
SPECIAL PRAYER/CHALLENGE TO WIVES FOR THEIR HUSBANDS:
JAMES DAY 17 PRAYER
Pray that today your husband will be free to fail no matter where he is or who he is with. Pray that when he stumbles, he will get back up. Pray that his tongue will be full of praise and not cursing. (James 3:2-12)
JAMES DAY 17 CHALLENGE
I love how today’s scripture starts out! “We all stumble in many ways.” Let us not forget that ladies. Let us continually remember that we ALL stumble, that none of us are perfect. If we give our spouses and ourselves freedom to fail, there is a great releasing of tension and bondage in our marriages.
Click here to see the rest of today’s challenge.
