Words Shape Your World

Your Words Matter

Take a moment to reflect on the words you spoke this week to the people around you or to yourself. Were your words life-giving, hopeful, honoring of yourself and others, or were they full of worry, judgmental, critical, self-condemning, doubtful, destructive, and damaging? What kind of music have you been listening to and what kind of content have you been consuming through the news or media? What you consume through your eye and ear gates influence your thought life and the words you speak.

Proverbs 18:21 (KJV) says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

Often times, we carelessly use our words because we don't think it's a big deal. Since we don't see the immediate impact and result of our words, we don't understand the weight of our words. Our words are like seed that we plant in the soil of our lives, but we may not see the fruit of them until years down the line, whether it be good or bad fruit. This scripture reveals that our tongue has the power and authority create life (ex: faith, hope, joy, peace, redemption and healing) or death (ex: hopelessness, faithlessness, division, and destruction). It's critical to learn how to steward our words better.

1. Evaluate your thought-life

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. This reveals that many of us are terrible stewards of our thoughts. Our words are a product of what we think and believe, so we have to start with evaluating our thought life in order to steward what comes out of our mouth.

Luke 6:46 (NKJV) says, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

Whenever heart is referenced in scripture, it means our soul, mind, and thoughts. This is why we need to start cultivating a healthier thought life because it is from this source that we speak.

2. Meditate on the good

Philippians 4:8 advises us to "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

This doesn't mean that we ignore reality or avoid challenges and conflict, but we need to make it a habit and practice to feed our minds with what's going right. Given the fact that our minds are predisposed to think negatively, we have to retrain our mind to consider the things that going well. It's so easy for us to dwell on what's going wrong in our lives and in the world, but the only way to see hope for change is to see potential in what's going right.

3. Take every thought captive

The average person has 12,000-60,000 thoughts per day according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Needless to say, that's a lot of thoughts to manage, tame, and retrain.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NKJV) states, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ"

We have to aggressively tear down every lie or thought that contradicts what the word of God says and what God says about us. There must be a standard of truth to compare and analyze our thoughts to so that we know what thoughts to accept or reject and to keep unwholesome thoughts out of the garden of our minds.

To summarize, our thoughts are the nutrients we feed ourselves, words are the seed that produces the kind of fruit and harvest we see in our lives.

Take time this week to practice stewarding your thoughts and words and see what kind of difference it makes in your day-to-day life.

Stay encouraged!