“Words have power.”
I’m sure many of us have heard this admonition in some form or another. There are numerous scenarios that could drive our well-intentioned compatriots to offer this nugget: we’ve been self-deprecating, we have said something negative about the future, we have misspoken or used incorrect vocabulary, we’ve made a joke or employed sarcasm, and the list goes on.
But what does it mean? Will something come into existence simply because we say so? It certainly is possible – “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20). As you read this passage, you realize that it is not the words themselves that caused the mountain to move, but the faith behind the words. Put another way, the state of your heart matters much more than the content of speech. “The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). Our words reflect our hearts.
While we wield the power to perform mighty miracles – Jesus said “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12) – the reality is that many people do not believe or embrace this power (for a variety of reasons – a discussion for another day). So what power do words have?
It comes back to basic human psychology – the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy. The basic idea is that your internal beliefs about something will influence how you approach that subject, and very well could impact the outcome directly. What is one thing that most successful people have in common? Confidence. Elite athletes often declare themselves to be the best (see Muhammad Ali), entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to investors with confidence, a basic principle of public speaking is confidence – think of someone that you consider to be successful, are they confident in that area? (This is not to say that someone who is successful in one area is confident in all areas. The relationships between confidence, arrogance, and insecurity is a topic for a different discussion.) What is confidence, other than believing something positive about yourself? What we believe matters.
If we declare ourselves to be terrible sinners and that we never could earn God’s love, then what hope do we have? It becomes a self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating cycle of sin-declaration-shame-sin-declaration-shame that spirals into oblivion. That sounds a bit dramatic, but before you dismiss me, think about it. According to the Bible, God is love (1 John 4:8). Jesus said that the greatest commandment is love (Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus also said, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Where is there room for this spiral of shame? Did not Christ sacrifice himself to make us right with God (Romans 5:10)? Has His blood not made us clean (1 John 1:7)? When we shame ourselves, we effectively are saying that we have messed up too much – that the cross isn’t enough to save us.
When we sin – “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) – we must recognize our sin and repent (what a word; maybe I’ll blog about that soon). We must ask God for forgiveness, we must accept His grace, mercy, and love in forgiving us, and then we must extend this same grace, mercy, and love to ourselves. We must acknowledge our sins, learn from them, turn from them, and continue to seek Christ. We must believe that He is enough – we are sinners, and we need Him. We must believe that with Him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
But, as with any power, there is a choice to be made: for good or for harm. Next time you find yourself saying, or even thinking, something negative about yourself – stop – think about what you are declaring over yourself. Is this something that you want to be true? If the answer is ‘no,’ then rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus and ask Him for the ability to see yourself the way He sees you. Listen to what He says and then declare that over yourself. You may not (probably won’t) be able to believe it at first, but as you continue to declare this over yourself, through time, you will come to believe it, because…
words have power.
