SOUL TROUBLE
PROVERBS 21:23 NKJV
23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
I grew up in the South with parents who had been raised in the deep South. I know a thing or two about soul food. This proverb is not about that. This verse is a short but powerful nugget of wisdom on how to keep your soul out of trouble.
The Bible has a very different perspective on much of life. Things our current culture may consider no big thing are considered very important to our Creator.
The One who made us undertstands us better than anyone. He knows what works for us and what causes problems. We have made great advances in medical and psychiatric science. But we are no where near to grasping the total makeup of man that our God knows inside out. To put it another way, science is not ahead of God. Science is merely discovering what God already knows.
And God knows the power of our words. Our culture has diminished the power of words. But that does not change God's spiritual eternal structure.
The one key area that medical and mental science has not been able to ascertain is the spiritual nature of man. If you think man is only made up of brain and body, you leave out the key feature. Man is a spirit being. Man has a soul and lives in a body. But the spirit of man is the most vital part. That's the part that continues on long after the body has ceased to live.
And it's the spiritual nature of our words that would benefit us if we pay attention to this area.
Speaking negative words about ourselves and others does not help us. It hurts us. Speaking negatively about our future is not doing us any good at all.
But choosing our words wisely pays big benefits. Proverbs has so much to say about our words. In fact, Proverbs states that death and life are in the power of our words. (Proverbs 18:21)
We would be blessed immensely if we take as seriously what comes out of our mouth as we do what goes in.
Speak life, good things about yourself, your loved ones, and your future. Guard your mouth and keep your soul, your inward life, free from troubles. There are enough negatives going on around us to risk adding to the challenges that we already face.
PRAYER:
Lord help me put a guard on my mouth!