May 21

Today’s reading has quite a cutting edge to it. James says that the tongue can set a whole forest on fire and I guess I have lit a few fires in my lifetime! So when I read these Proverbs I struggle to not find my past in them. With all that is in me I want to find my future in them. I want to have life flowing from my tongue, bringing healing, wisdom and joy to many! I want to enjoy good things from my tongue and be filled with good fruit! I am sure that you want the same things, and yearn for them like me – but there is a catch.

That catch is that I am the one who must control my tongue. Nobody else can do it. I have to go against my first reactions, my flesh, and any proclivity to parrot (repeat) what I hear from spirits of darkness. There lies the difficulty for me. Even though I have completely changed from the pre-Christian and early Christian eras of my life, the “old nature” tendency is still strong. That tendency is NOT good! The only thing to do is kill it and kill it hard! The other thing that I am hearing is “just do it”. There is no way around it – I have got to clear the way for my new natural response. It is SO there just waiting for a chance to speak words of life.