Hosanna Restoration Church

I am sure you have noticed that there are some things in the Bible that we resist. Some things just seem too hard, and because we are not comfortable with them, we tend to want to turn from them. Controlling the tongue seems to be one of those things that tends to cause us to throw up our hands and say we can’t do it. But the truth is we control our tongues all the time when we want to. Think about it.

How is it that we can keep ourselves from sharing the goodness of God with those who we don’t think would care to listen? And aren’t there lots of things that we never say to someone’s face that we will tell someone else? Or what about the things that guys say to guys that they don’t say to the girls. And what about girl-talk girls! Actually there is a pretty long list of things that we do control our tongues about, so why does is seem so hard when God tells us to get a grip on our tongue?

I think the answer is obvious. There is a strong resistance, because our enemy the devil knows that we have the power of life and death in our tongues. He knows that we can build or destroy our lives with our tongues and He sure does not want us to build.

As we discussed this in church, we discovered that instead of simply asking God to help us, we had a tendency to want to know just how far out the line was as to what we could talk about, or how we could even talk about things and still be safe. I believe that is sort like wanting to walk close to the edge. Well we all know, that if we spend our time walking close to edge we are bound to fall off. However, if we simply stay close to the Rock, Jesus Christ, we may still bounce out and fall over the edge on occasion but not nearly so frequently. And if we stay close to Him we will not be so condemned when we do stumble.

No doubt we all recognize that controlling our tongues is important, now we simply need to work it out in our lives. We know right from wrong. Even people without the Holy Spirit were given a conscience by God, and know right from wrong. With the Holy Spirit, we have the strength to overcome. If we are willing to yield to Him, He will tell us clearly when things that we say are not right and we will be able to stop and repair damage before it has permanently destroyed anything.

God does not expect us to get it perfect instantly, but He does expect us to allow Him to perfect us along the lines of His word. As we become conscious of controlling our words we go even deeper and allow Him to help control our thoughts as well. When we think before we speak it changes our words tremendously. Just remember, we do control our tongues when we want to. God wants to help us to control them in such a way that we will experience the abundant life Jesus promised. We can do this. We can get it right. It is not too difficult. It is a reasonable service to God. Go for it.