BEING "HASTY"
- Part 2
We are continuing
where we left off at in “Being Hasty”. Let’s do some more research on what the
scriptures have to say about that topic.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 – “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God…”
This scripture
tells us not to be so quick at opening our mouths and letting words come out,
especially not to God. There is the story of Jephthah, the Gileadite judge of
Israel, that is a prime example of how NOT to be rash with your mouth to God.
Jephthah vowed to God that if He gave him victory over Ammon whatever came out
of the doors of his house he would offer as a burnt offering. Well,
unfortunately, his only child, a daughter, came out to meet him with timbrels
and dancing in celebration of the victory God had given him. Though brought
down low because of his own foolish speaking, he said that he could not go back
on his word to God. His daughter submitted herself to him telling him to do
according to her whatever he promised. Jephthah fulfilled his vow to God by
doing what he promised that he would do. You can read the story in Judges 11.
Once we speak
something, it is out and can never be taken back. The bible identifies our
tongue as a two-edged sword (it can cut you both ways!), it is bitter, that
death and life are in it, that whosoever keeps his tongue keeps his soul. It
describes the tongue as a devouring fire and something that we can smite others
with. It says that no man can tame it.
Question: If no one can tame the tongue… how do we have victory
over it?
Answer:
With man it is impossible but with God all things are possible. If you try it without God, you may succeed
in not speaking out damaging words for a while, however, the hasty words are
still in your thoughts because that is where it originates and because it is in
your thoughts, it will eventually come out.
You cannot do it without God changing what is inside of you!
My Testimony: I monitor my way of speaking and when I find that I have trouble
controlling what I say, I say an earnest prayer to the Lord until I see that He
has given me victory over it. Sometimes it will take just one time, other times
it may take days, still other times it has taken weeks! Once He gives me
victory over that problem, I continue to say the prayer for a few weeks as a
reminder that He has given me victory over it. If I go back to doing it again,
I go back to humbling myself before God to ask forgiveness for returning
to the bad habit and to ask Him once again to deliver me from it. So, I
begin quoting the same 2 scriptural prayers again. Those prayers are short and
simple:
Psalms 51:10-12 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew
a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me
with thy free Spirit.”
Psalms 141:3 – “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the
door of my lips.”
If you struggle
with watching what you say and things get out of your mouth before you can shut
it, make these a daily prayer of yours. If necessary, pray them several times a
day, each time after you let your mouth run before you. God will not only give
you victory in controlling the mouth from speaking what shouldn’t be spoken,
but He will help clean up the heart so that the thoughts won’t come to that
point of verbalizing unspeakable things.
Try it today!
Join me next week as we go over “Enduring”