Skip to main content

Well of Life


The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well, but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse. (Proverbs 10:11)

Words matter, don't they? When was the last time someone spoke encouraging words into your life and you just felt like they had inflated an emotional "flat tire" inside you? Words can build up, or they can tear down - the course of our conversation is important to consider each and every time we open our mouths. Yet, how many of us actually consider our words BEFORE we allow them to come forth? If you are like me, hindsight is really great, but foresight as it comes to my words is not always that 'clear'!

God's intent is for our mouths to be deep, life-giving wells - that doesn't leave much room for the frivolous words, much less the hurtful, demeaning, critical, or angry ones, does it? Don't get me wrong - not every word we speak needs to begin with "God this..." or "God that..." - but our words should not create wounds. That said, there are times our word will ring 'true' in a person's ears, but they will have 'hurt emotions'. Why is that? The words might have brought some form of conviction into another's life without you even knowing it.

We aren't in the business of bringing conviction, but when we speak from a life-giving well, there will be times when the words just 'strike center' in someone's life. They will sting a bit, but they won't leave a gaping wound. They will actually bring the relationship closer and create a sense of awareness of the love within the relationship. I have had my closest friend speak something to me, revealing to me just how selfish or prideful my behavior may have been, but that didn't tear down the relationship. It revealed to me how much the relationship matters and that my behavior needed some adjustment.

Truth often convicts - truth in love doesn't tear down - it creates a platform from which growth may occur. Words matter - but always let them be framed in love, not hatred, anger, or arrogant pride. When we learn to consider our words, asking the Holy Spirit to act as a guardian of those words, we are less like to speak from a 'bitter well' and more likely to speak from a 'well of life'. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,