Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way.
James 3:10 HCSB

When we speak of someone speaking is speaking out of both sides of their mouth, we are saying that they lie or they contradict themselves. I caught myself doing this just last week. I was truly blessed by God when He worked out a situation that had at first seemed impossible. I kept telling myself and others, “God’s got this”, which is my mantra. And God did. He worked everything out perfectly. But still, I caught myself complaining about some very small insignificant matters.

Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” Let’s face it, when we filled blessed, we are quick to praise God. But, out of that same mouth we will utter curse words when things don’t go our way. 

When our hearts are filled with peace and joy, we are quick to praise God. When our hearts are filled with anger and bitterness, we fail to show love for our enemies. We fail to pray for those who persecute us as we are instructed to do in Matthew 5:44.

Maybe you don’t have this problem. Maybe you consistently praise God in all circumstances as we are told to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Perhaps your heart is filled with praise all the time and this is what spills out of your mouth.

We are told in James 3:8 that no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. I am not suggesting that we try to tame our own tongue, because this verse clearly tells us that we can’t do that. But God can. I’m going to start by asking God daily to help me tame my tongue. I am going to pray Psalms 141:3 which says, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips!

I know I must also refrain from negativity. If something produces negative thoughts or talk, I need to remove it. We are told in Philippians to dwell on the things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and on any moral excellence and praise. If we dwell on these things, we will find that we have a heart that is grateful and overflows praise. We have probably all heard at one time or another that if we have nothing good to say, then we should just keep our mouths shut. Well, Ephesians 4:29 tells us that we are to let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths, but only what is good for building others up as the occasion fits so that it may give grace to those who hear.

I am going to try for 30 days to not grumble or complain. I am going to pray for God to guard my mouth. I am going to pray for God to fill me with His Holy Spirit which I know will convict me when I fail to comply. I also know that being filled with God’s Holy Spirit will help my mouth to overflow with the words that please God.

Our tongues can cause a great deal of damage if we are not careful to guard them. James 3:5-6 describes how a small blaze can cause a huge forest fire. It’s kind of like how someone can drop a cigarette butt and start a wildfire.

We are told in Proverbs 18:21 that death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits. We must be careful of what comes out of our mouths. What we speak can create a vicious cycle. If we constantly take in negativity, we will speak negativity. If we constantly speak negativity, we will experi ence more negativity in our relationships and our circumstances.

Matthew 15:11 says it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of it. I am not asking you to diet during this holiday season, just to restrict your mouth. Are you willing to ask for God’s help?

With our mouths we can lie, we can hurt others feelings, we can curse and say other ungodly things. We are told in Matthew 12:36 that on the day of judgment we will answer for every empty or idle word spoken. I don’t want to be standing there that long answering for all the idle words I have spoken. So today I am going to pray to God to forgive me for the idle words of my past. I am going to ask Him to remove those sins far from me. I am also going to ask Him to help me to do much better from this day forward. Won’t you join me?

Have a great day!