Mar2015_Faith & Living

The spoken word has the power to establish a thing … to actually declare something over another’s life.  It’s also true in relation to our own life.

Paul, writing to the Roman church said, “If you believe in your heart and declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  We usually think that faith is simply a matter of what a person believes, but it is also what they declare or confess.  Jesus said that “if we confess Him before men that he will confess us before His Father.”  Words will often seal a thing.

I wrote an article last year about encouragement.  The word means simply, ‘to put in courage.’  To discourage, ‘takes away courage.’  Lack of courage will often prevent a person from doing something they’re probably quite capable of achieving.  Being an encourager will often be just the thing a person needs to ‘give it a go’.  Words, when they’re used well, are an incredible power for good.

I think that often we have a tendency to over-use words and that can dilute their value or potential.  If we’re constantly babbling, folk soon cease to listen.  At other times we’ll jump in with words when it would have been better for us to say nothing.  I’ve adopted a rule that I try to use (I don’t always succeed).  It’s simply that if I can’t say anything encouraging or uplifting to a person, I’d rather not say anything at all.

I often get asked to provide references for people.  Sometimes it’s really hard to think of anything positive to say about someone, but I don’t believe that a reference is a time to say a negative thing about a person.  Everyone has a redeeming quality and it occasionally has to be searched for, but it’s worth it to persevere.

Let’s speak good things, uplifting things to one another and especially to those within our own house.

Gary Levens, Pastor,

Dayboro Church.