Wednesday 26 Mar 2014

Wednesday Reading: James 3:1-9

Key Verse: James 3:5
Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!

Devotion:
It really is amazing how much trouble we can get ourselves into by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time! No matter how quietly we say it or how much we try to grab back those words, when those words have left our mouths they will land on someone else’s ears… it’s then too late!

I have seen first-hand how a small and un-assuming fire can take hold very quickly and decimate a forest or country-side. It is a very frightening thing to watch how huge flames can get in a big fire and how uncontrollable it all seems to get so very quickly. But if that first flame was not lit, then the fire would not have gotten out of control in the first place. In this same manner God tries to warn us against saying that small phrase that will light the bonfire and see us lose control very quickly. God knows just how easy it is to lose control and His warning here is to not go there to start with.

Taking a second to think about what we say before we say it may lose us a second or two in our lives, but it will not lose us our friendship or loved ones. The speed at which sound travels is pretty amazing, but when compared to the speed at which electricity travels it is nothing. So when you are going to spark off a conversation in the multi-media world of the internet, just take a few seconds to think how quickly it will reach the other side of the world, and as you are thinking it would have already gone round the world!

Social media and other forms of communication are so much faster than sound and they do not fade away after a few meters; they reach their destination in exactly the same form as they left your fingertips! The same words can be used for good instead if you take that extra second to think about what you are going to send, post, say, write, type or whatever; take time and think of what it would be like on the other end of the line…

Points to Ponder:
Do you think how your words will affect others?

Are you really thinking before you speak?