…It is words that break me. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue,and those who love it will eat its fruits." Words have power. When God helped reveal this to me one morning, I just sat there overwhelmed by the realization of how much death I had spoken over people. I was broken over just how much power I had falsely and painfully wielded out of both thoughtlessness and wicked intention.
Whether we like to admit it or not, words stick. We are not rubber and others glue with words bouncing off me to you. More often than not we are sponges. We hear and absorb and the words plant themselves and fester and grow. They form insecurities, fears and false identities.
And this applies whether we speak the words over others or over ourselves. Growing up there were labels applied to my siblings and I don't quite know the source, but I know the words planted in my mind. I always believed that my sister was the pretty one, my brother was the funny one, and I was the smart one. This spoke to my heart that I was ugly and not funny and when I felt like my intelligence was challenged or came up short that I was truly nothing. And in small pieces I still struggle to renounce those lies to this day.
Our words have power. So speak life. Speak life over those in your life. Yes, they may have hurt you and done awful things. Those things are not to be dismissed or discredited. You pain is valid and to be felt and processed through. Just keep in mind that in the Kingdom, they, like you, were uniquely created and knit together by God and set apart for a purpose. Keep in mind that in Christ we are not sick people being made whole, we are whole people shaking off sickness. Our identities are not found in our weaknesses and failures but in the one who redeemed us. So speak to those things. Speak into the lives of those around you who and what they were created to be, not associate them only with their follies.
This morning I was listening to a song by Tenth Avenue North with some timely words of wisdom. It said, "You are more than choices that you make. You are more than the sum of your past mistakes. You are more than the problems you create. You've been remade. Cuz this is not about what you've done but what's been done for you. This is not about where you've been but where your brokenness brings you too."
We have been remade and by his grace as it says Colossians we are continually being renewed each day. Pray for and speak to the things you want to see and trust in our God who has promised to bring His work in each of us to full completion in the likeness of His son.
