A HEALTHY TONGUE
Proverbs 15:4 NKJV
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,
But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Today I want to talk about tongue therapy. How to have a healthy tongue. It may be the title of my first book. And I am joking. Sort of. Joking about the book part, but very serious about a healthy tongue. A healthy tongue is all about words that promote inner health, not inner pain.
Yesterday, we looked at the emotions of envy and jealousy and how they work against us. They wreak havoc on our inner life and work against having a sound, healthy heart. Today we are looking at another way to bring life to our inner life, and it will have to do with our words.
A wholesome tongue. When I think of wholesome, it’s a word that is not used as much today. Wholesome is connected to health, but also connected with moral well-being. For example, finding a wholesome young lady was a good plan for me looking for marriage and Joy fit the bill. But I don’t see the word used often in the media. Maybe because so much of what is available in media doesn’t fit the qualifications for being wholesome. But how does wholesomeness apply to our tongue?
A better definition of wholesome is healing. A healing tongue is a tree of life. The question is, what is a healing tongue? Proverbs 18:21 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Our verse for today echoes that truth. A tongue that speaks words of life, love, peace, faith, joy is going to have a positive effect on our hearts. Science has determined that when we speak words of anxiety, anger, and hate, it creates a neural pathway in our brain. Repeatedly speaking these negative words creates the default path for our thinking. Our thoughts affect our heart, our inner life. We cannot separate thoughts and words. So words of love and faith produce healing pathways and impact our hearts, our inner life. Romans 8:6 says that to be fleshly-minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. When our thoughts and then our words are distorted, our verse says perverse; it breaks the spirit. Science is determining what the Bible has been saying for thousands of years; our words matter. And our words can be used to reshape our thoughts.
One of the many advantages of being a believer is that we don’t have to make up the positives in our lives. We have a script we can follow that is powerful and positive, not perverse. Speaking God’s Word, particularly as it pertains to who we are to God and who we are in Christ, is even more powerful than simply speaking positives. Because God’s Word is living and powerful on a spiritual level, His Word is healing. We can have a healing tongue simply by saying what God says. That is a big subject distilled down into simple form, but we don’t have to make it complicated. Say what God says about yourself. You are blessed and loved. You are forgiven and risen with Christ. You are accepted and complete in Christ Jesus. You are a new creation and one of God’s special people chosen by Him. These are healing words. Speaking what a failure you are and so fearful and upset is going to be hurtful. Yes, you may be experiencing these negative things, but this is not your destiny nor your Heavenly Father’s view of you.
We all have something to say. We might as well make our words healing and life filled. Your words. Your heart health. Your choice.