Proverbs 16:24 - Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Everybody likes words of encouragement. In fact, encouraging words are great for inspiration, challenge, and overall good stuff!! As the above scripture says, "they are sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Encouraging words have set into motion great victories in life purpose and great comfort during troublesome times. So, encouraging words are a must for each of us and great strength for the one giving them and the one receiving them. The quality of words must never be watered down or minimized by overuse. The flippant way we sometimes look at them can water the effectiveness down. So, don't say something if you don't really mean it!! When we do that we are attaching a lie to a hopefully effective retort. Let's take a little deeper walk into this word thing. Truthfulness is a great step of maturity for all people, but especially for believers. Our truthfulness must come form a pool of sincerity and love. That pool is formed when the spring of the Holy Spirit begins to fill the empty spaces in our soul with forgiveness and healing, and the Lord. Thus, we are changed from the inside out. Hillsong Worship has a song entitled "From the Inside Out" and some of the lyrics are as follows; Your will above all else my purpose remains. The art of losing myself in bringing you praise, Everlasting your light will shine when all else fades never ending Your glory goes beyond all fame. In my heart and my soul, I give You control consume me from the inside out Lord Let justice and praise become my embrace to love you from the inside out.
Wow, Lord fill me to the top!!! When you are filled with the Holy Spirit your words take on a new importance and mission. I have a problem talking and then thinking, so I bypass the pool I need to be drawing from and I draw from a much different, more fleshly pool. Not good. Part of my journey as a believer is God taking my heart and redirecting my thoughts and what I say into that better pool that is filled with the Spirit. In my desire to be more like Jesus I must tap into that pure water source for what I say and what I do. Two words that have been compromised in their use that are very prevalent for many of us and those two words are "Love Ya." Love Ya is a weak substitute for the three words "I love you." When we say the three word phrase it takes on a much more serious meaning and can sound like we really do love that person. It brings it down to a connection between two people "I" love "You."
That really fine tunes the phrase. "Love Ya" is used by total strangers the first time they meet sometimes and the over use of those two words can cheapen the real meaning and connotations that come with the words "I Love You." I have heard greeters at church say them to people they meet when they greet them and it causes me to cringe when I think about how much it cheapens the words that must have a heart meaning attached to.
In our pursuit to say "something" instead of something of "value and meaning" we can make the words less effective by over use and misuse. When I say "Love Ya" to my wife, whom I do love very deeply, I mean it. I am really saying, "I love you." In the movie Princess Bride every time Westley said the words "As you wish" he was really saying "I love you." He loved Princess Buttercup and his heart to serve her was his way of saying "I love you."
And so it is with our relationship with God and with others. Instead of saying "love ya" and not serving, we should serve and thus say with our life "I love you" or "as you wish." Then our words will have depth when we say with our actions "love ya." Those actions will really mean "I Love You" to Jesus. That's what Matthew 25:40 is all about. If you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me, Jesus says. Not just words, like this blog, but action. James said it well in Chapter 2:18 where he says, "Someone may well say, You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." This works for words also.
May we start over living and under using our words so that our words have "meat" and meaning and leave an indelible mark because of what we are doing instead of what we are saying. As we focus on Valentine's Day this might be a good time to make some life adjustments in the area of words and action and reverse them if they are out of wack. Then what we say with words or flowers will have much more meaning and be way more effective for the building up of others. Then these words will have a sweetness about them mentioned in the Proverbs 16:24 verse. Remember, Jesus said "I love you" when He went to the cross. Let's just take it from there......The ultimate valentine bouquet of love. Like a rose trampled on the ground. You took the fall and thought of me Above All. Now,that is love.
The Pilgrimage continues...
David Warren
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