Monday Reading: Ephesians 4:29-32
Key Verse: Ephesians 4:32
32 And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
Devotion:
What makes you swear? What makes you blurt out something that you then regret? I would say that almost every time it can be put down to your emotions getting the better of you... Does this mean we should put away our emotions? Far from it! Without emotions we are nothing but a computer. God created us with emotions so that we can for views on subjects or things that happen around us. We are the ones that have corrupted those views and hence bring forward “corrupted” words when our emotions run wild. Those words have to come from somewhere – they don’t just spring up...
Each time we hear another rude or filthy word, it gets into our heads. The more that we hear that word, the more likely we are to remember it and then the more likely we are to repeat it when our emotions get a bit high! That corruption has come from external sources, but we have probably allowed it in without any rejection. If we stood up to people repeating those words, they would be more likely to reserve their speech when in front of us and we would be less likely to hear those words... Sounds so simple... but we just don’t get round to trying to stop people because we don’t want to offend them! Well, how much are they offending us when they repeat those words?
If we want to be able to clean up our lives, then we have to start by trying to set an example. That example has got to start by showing others that we reject filthy language – the first step is going to have to be for us to slow ourselves down and stop using those words ourselves. If we aim towards Christ’s teaching by loving one another and forgiving one another, then we are going to be much less likely to have our emotions run so wild that we lose control of our mouths. It is not just in arguments when our emotions are running wild but also in excitement. Far too often we get excited over something that is happening and start describing event in rather crude ways – because we have heard those crude ways said over and over again...
Points to Ponder:
Do you really know how much comes out of your mouth?
Are you showing forgiveness to others like Christ has shown you?