Words can be powerful. They can be used to get important points across. They can be used to bless. They are often used to hurt and sometimes they hurt unintentionally. On one hand people need to know the truth even when it hurts. But also it must always be in love. Sometimes we need to think of others’ feeling with what we say. The devil uses the tactic of twisting words so that we say things we don’t mean or the words are misinterpreted, and both can cause relationship breakdowns.
James 3:1-12
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
One of the devil’s greatest weapons is to put a wedge in family relationships. He wants to keep our focus away from God and doing His will and one way is to distract us with family and relationship problems. We need to not let the devil win these battles. We need to put on the full armor of God and stand firm and resist the devil. Our focus must always be on God. We need to be praying to God every day and be in His word every day and live according to that word. Trust in Jesus. Ask God to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Let us put our pride aside. Let us be careful with what we say and ask God to give us the right words and to live righteously. We should be praying for those who offend us and those we love. We need to love our enemies. We need to work out our differences and grievances with those close to us. We need to remember who the enemy is. It is not our loved ones; it is not those we have conflict with. The enemy is the devil. Paul says we do not fight against flesh and blood but against those in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 6).
The devil will come after us because he seeks to kill and destroy. That is his goal. He seeks to keep people from God. But, we need to be reminded that he has lost. We have victory in Jesus and we need to live in a way that reflects that and not allow his lies and deceit to overcome us. We have overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony and the enemy cannot take that away from us. Let our words be pure and be a testimony of the One who saves us. We have the Holy Spirit in us and with the Spirit we can overcome the devil and resist him.
Revelation 12:10-11
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
James 4:7-10
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
1 John 4:4-6
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
My Daily Scriptures 