WORDS......

“The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them” (Proverbs 12:6).


In the tall grass lies the lion in wait for the small defenseless antelope in an unaware moment to pounce upon the weaker. The small antelope in an instant will lose its life at the jaws of the ferocious beast. In a moment life is lost forever. So are the power of words from the lips of uncaring and wicked men. The words lie in wait to destroy and wound innocent people. Some words never lose their sting through the years. Their power to cause pain is there long after the one who spoke is gone. The words of a dad in anger will sting and infect for decades. The jabs of a husband to his bride lie silently in the mind of his bride for years. The words spoken through uncaring lips are deadly and devastating.


How good are the words of the upright? They are the words of the physician who declares, "The disease is gone!" They are the words of the minister who declares, "Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more!" They are the words of a dad that says, "Son, I am proud of you! " They are the words of a man to his bride, "I love and cherish you above all of life!" They are the words of rescue to all who are lost in a surge of dark and powerful waves of the world. They are the light in a dark night.

A friend shares his devotions with me and others through emails, I must admit that I don't read them all, but this one really spoke to me. Not that I grew up being verbally abused, nor have I ever been married so I cannot say that I have abused my spouse, though there have been relationships, there was rarely any verbal abuse. As for wicked words spoken to others, I try to be nice most times. I'm not saying I'm perfect, not even close to it because my mouth does have a tendency to get me in trouble at times but the reason this message ministered to me is because I have seen the effects of Words in the lives of people who are very close to me. Many times I wish that there was something that I could say to ease the sting of these words because I can feel the hurt in them even though they were not aimed at me.

Remember telling others when you were just a kid, 'You better take that back' if they said something to hurt you? Well the Truth is that once spoken it's not so easy to just take them back. Words do last, and the pain of hurtful words may linger a lot longer than we would believe.

Someone once told me that I had a short man's attitude. What does that mean? Well being only 5'4" I have always had a tendency to feel that I needed to defend myself when attacked verbally, even if it was done in jest, didn't matter to me, pride said "Hit back".
And still most times when someone takes a jab at me verbally I still have the impulse to jab back, but I have learned to keep my testimony, (most of the time), :)

Yes, Words do have power, God says they have the power of life and death, Prov. 18 : 21, but the Lord I serve has triumphed over them:

Psalm 30:1-5

¹ I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

² O Lord my God, I cried to You and You have healed me.

³ O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the place of the dead); You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit (the grave).

⁴ Sing to the Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

⁵ For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime or in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.  

And He says that I am free from the power they once held over me. I don’t feel the sting as I did in the past, but yet, they can still hurt at times….

How many times have you wished you could have just “Taken Back” the words you said in anger or fear? How many times have you ever felt hurt by the words spoken to you by someone you loved or respected? And do you still feel the pain of Words spoken to you in the past?

I do not wish to end this with a negative, so the most important question is; How has God comforted, healed, forgiven, or empowered you over the power of Words? Please share

The Gift Of The Good Son

My Mother once said to me that I was her last chance at having a good son. I can’t tell you how many times I fell short of that wish of hers. I was 12 years old and my two older brothers were in prison, one for stealing cars and the other for a purse snatching he did not do but was found with the contents of the purse near him in a car, he was doing time for another man because he was not a snitch. I was being accused of a crime my mother and I both knew I did not do, we also knew that I was willing to go to juvenile hall before I would tell the police who did do it. As we drove home from the station the only sound in the car was her quiet sobbing, it was the longest ride of my life and I sat there just staring out the window. No way was I even going to look at her, not because I was ashamed, because I wasn’t. I was mad; the police were going to take away my freedom because I chose not to be a snitch. But I could not look at her because if I did then I knew I would start to cry too and that was just not going to happen, then I would be ashamed. When we drove into the carport she put her hand on mine and looked me in the eye and said, "Cy please don’t turn out like your brothers, you're my last chance at a good son". Not long after that I did my best to make good on my promise to change. I joined the local Pop Warner football team and found a whole new bunch of friends. I did better in school and began to do what I could around the house to help her out. But never was I able to live up to that promise. Imagine the love of a mother for her son and the helplessness to save him, and imagine the love of the son and his helplessness to be true to a promise he made to a mother he loves. In 2004 Jesus found me broken, lost and alone. I was a heroin addict, homeless and have been living on the streets for many years. I was so dirty and unkept that people actually walked around me so that they would not have to look at me or get near me. But God did not ignore me or avoid me but He searched me out and embraced me when I was at my worst Today my two older brothers and I are all good sons to my mom. We love her and see her often. Our love for her is stronger than ever and I believe it is because even though we all have caused her so much hurt she always loved us. We all love God and we all have been changed by His love. Now imagine the love of a Father for a Son He does have the power to save but instead gives Him up as a sacrifice for those who like me have turned their back on their God and broken many promises to Him. And imagine the Son who can at any moment end an ordeal that has caused Him great humiliation, enormous shame and unimaginable pain but chooses instead to endure for the sake of even just one bad son. This is the true meaning of Christmas! That God would give His one and only Son to die for you and that the Son would give His life that you may live with the Father forever, regardless of who you are today or have been in all of your yesterdays. We teach our kids to believe in Santa and get upset when they stop believing thinking that it’s all over, our kids are all grown up and now Christmas has lost all of its magic. But I declare to you that it is not until we begin to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas that the magic begins! This day is a day of faith, a day of thanksgiving and a day of reflection upon a child in a manger that came to bring to life the hope of a hopeless mother for her sons, to answer the cry of a dying man as he lie in his own blood and filth and reaches towards Heaven and asks for redemption! This is the day that the heavens were opened wide and God's Love poured down upon a merciless generation and Mercy was spread throughout the world to every nation and for all time! My friends, God loves you! He has proven His love for you with the only way that can be declared as proof; He gave to you a Good Son! Merry Christmas