“All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:7-8)
More happy thoughts about the tongue today. If you’ve spent any quality time with TV’s Animal Planet, you’ve seen what James is talking about. Even wild animals can be trained to do amazing things. There’s a seal at our zoo that will put away its toys on command. Awesome!
But the tongue is the wildest beast of them all. Completely untameable. Why? Because our words always and eventually reveal our true hearts. And our hearts are sinful. Even those of us in Christ — in the process of being made brand new in His image — often prove that transformation is not complete when we speak.
Remember what James’ half-brother Jesus said about our words? “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Mattew 12:34) So our only hope of changing the quality of the words coming out of us is to allow God to change the quality of the heart beating inside of us.
Think: Think about the words you’ve used in the last 24 hours. What does your communication reveal about the state of your heart and mind and soul?
Pray: Ask God to help you to love Him more and more with your mind and heart and soul and body so that your words will more often reveal His love in you.
Do: Pay attention again today to the quality of people’s words and notice how what they say reveals what going on inside of them.