“BUT THE HUMAN TONGUE CAN BE TAMED BY NO MAN.  IT IS RESTLESS (UNDISCIPLINED, IRRECONCILABLE) EVIL, FULL OF DEADLY POISON.”

– JAMES 3:6

Many times when we think of the words we speak, we tend to think about how they affect others. But what about the things we say to ourselves?

In the Bible, God lays out what He thinks of us, how He loves us, and all the promises He has made to us, but it can be really easy to forget those things sometimes. We may say or think things about ourselves that make it very hard to progress in our spiritual walk. God’s promises help us to trust in Him, build our faith, and hope in Him. James 3:6 says that our words can be restless, undisciplined, irreconcilable, and full of deadly poison. This means that if we are not careful to line our words up with what God says about us and promises to us, we can become the one thing in the way of our growth.

God’s promises to us do not only focus on our spiritual life, but every single area of our lives. Whatever decision, struggle, or question that we face we must speak the Word rather than poisoning our promises with idle words. The only way to ensure that the Word of God is what comes out of our mouths first is to repeatedly spend time in the Word and apply it to our lives. Just like what we say to and about others can build them up or break them down, the same applies to what we say of ourselves.