Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday the other day; you all helped make it special! I had to laugh after I got a happy birthday text because these were my phone’s recommended responses! Words can be appropriate or awkward, kind and encouraging, or mean and even devastating, but one thing is clear: words are powerful!
Proverbs 18:21 puts it this way: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”
I’ve known of people who were ready to give up…and then someone told them how much Jesus loves them. It didn’t take anything fancy; it took the compassion to share the Solution in a world full of problems.
Not everyone we come across will have incredibly urgent needs, but everyone needs a kind word, a message of hope, or a nudge in the right direction. If we’re gonna talk, let’s be prepared to “eat the fruit thereof” by saying the right things at the right time so that our words give kindness not criticism, the Gospel not gossip, and loving encouragement to grow instead of constant anger or selfishness.
If I had replied, “same to you!” when I was wished a happy birthday, it would have been weird and maybe confused my friend, but a lot of the time, the stakes are much higher. What are your words doing to the people around you?
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