Tuesday, September 20, 2022

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2022


Psalm 28

Nahum 2:10-3:7

Ephesians 4:29-5:5


Observance: John Coleridge Patteson, first bishop of Melanesia, martyr (d. 1871)


...that your words may give grace to those who hear.


If the statesman said that “the pen is mightier than the sword”, then the Bible says that the tongue is mightier than both. Words have power, or so goes another pithy idiom on the subject, but if we inject the concept of “power” with what we have learnt of what that word means for God, the pithiness begins to fade.


We are made in the image of God and reign on earth as God's representatives: through Christ's finished work, this role has been restored to us. Therefore we also wield power with our words. Negative words, words that put down, whittle away, subtract, upset and deny are of the enemy. The Accuser is quite happy to send out spiritual curses into the world using our words as the vehicle.


On the other hand, we Christians are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. Using our words to curse grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Using our words to bless, on the other hand, breaks open this material world and allows God's blessings to flow in. God wants to bless the world, and God wants to bless it through us: representatives in God's image.


If the objective of this Christian life is to get closer to the relationship that is the Triune God, in our divinely decreed role as adopted children and representatives in the material universe, then the opportunity to bless and give grace to one another through our words is one of our highest callings. “Tell those who came after that such is God: our God for ever and ever”. Lord, open our mouths for blessings and grace; show us Your loving resurrection power through the words we speak to one another.



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