Our Words (Matthew 12:36)

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Another area that will be examined is the words we speak. Now you may say, "Will God really hold a person accountable for every word they say?" Yes, He will. A study I read once indicated that, on average, men speak 25,000 words a day! And women speak significantly more! (Please, sisters, I am not criticizing. That is what the study said.)

James tells us that our tongues can lead us into a boatload of trouble, and we all know it is true (James 3). How many of us would like to take back some words we have spoken? I know I certainly would. All of us have, like Moses, spoken "rashly with our lips" (Ps 106:32-33). The book of Proverbs says, "He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin." [JFA Revista e Atualizada] (Prov 13:3; 21:23).

The lesson we want to learn from this is to try to be in a state of prayer when we open our mouths. Perhaps, if we weighed our words in the sanctuary of the Lord's presence before we open our mouths and let them fly, we would not get ourselves into trouble as we do. David illustrates this attitude of being in prayer. He said, "Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips." (Ps 141:3). I know this would promote peace in the assemblies as well.