Watch Our Words

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

WATCH OUR WORDS

Heb 11:20

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

NIV

Surely two blessings of such a different sort, one being of greatness, the other of lowliness and yet both were by faith. Isaac believed that his words of blessing to both Jacob and Esau would come true, and indeed they did. Did God tell Isaac exactly what to say, knowing what would happen? It appears that is not the case because Isaac said those words in faith believing his blessings had the power to shape his sons future. Can we, do we have that kind of power in our words? How do we deal with the words of Jesus when he said, “Have faith in God, I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he say will happen, it will be done for him.” Isn’t this the same thing as the faith Isaac had in saying his blessings on his sons? We should be able to have that kind of power in our words if we believe in God. And those words were not all good words. Jacob by deception, received the good words, and Esau was left with words that were not so good, yet they came true. Surely we should not aim to say bad words upon others, for that would not be consistent with brotherly love. But we surely could say kind and good words over others. Still, this kind of power in our words should also give us a moment of repose, for there is much to consider before we speak words of this nature. Surely gossip comes close to speaking bad words over another, and those we do gossip simply need to put a stop to all that kind of speaking, for they might well be bringing more harm upon their victim of gossip. Should not we speak words of praise over others? Words mean something, and here we see they indeed mean far more than want we might even think. The power to shape the future of both ourselves as well as others is in the words we speak, if we believe God. The prophets spoke words of the future events of all of Israel based on their behavior, as they were directed by God. Does not the Spirit dwell within us and give us direction in our speech? Or do we just speak of our own accord, meaningless chatter? Perhaps there are only special moments as with the case of Isaac blessing his sons, which we should be aware of the power of our words, and the rest of the time we can go about with our meaningless chatter. Either way we should be extremely aware of what we say, for how do we know when one of those special moments is upon us. Watch our words.