I was thinking a couple days ago about a challenge Wes Martin from International House of Prayer gave at Fascinate conference a few weeks ago. He challenged us to de-root the spirit of sarcasm and use our mouths instead to sow words of life into others. Such a challenge is typically pushed off as irrelevant and a waste of time and energy, and we sure did have a good time picking on each other whenever we would carelessly tease one another sarcastically.
Crazy as it sounds, there was once a time when I never spoke sarcastically. Don't believe me? Well, I am actually completely serious. It was due to the fact that I had read something, in the book Beautiful Girlhood I believe, about how girls with gentle and quiet spirits should always speak gentle, uplifting words. I took this seriously and set my heart and mind to speaking with gentleness. This conviction, however, soon became a thing of the past and I fell back into the habit of sarcasm simply because all my friends do it and I felt like I was taking things way too seriously. But was I really?
During Wes Martin's sermon, I was reminded of the commitment I had made seemingly forever ago. I was reminded of what the word of God says about our mouths - and how I was in no way taking the words of my mouth too seriously.
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue." ~ Proverbs 18:21
It's such a short verse, but boy does it have a strong meaning! There is power in our words. This is why speaking blessings over others is so important because there is power in that blessing. The same goes the other way around - when we speak negative things over people - even in jest.
"If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is perfect. He will also be able to control His entire body." ~ James 3:2
When the truth of this verse really hit me, I was like "Wow!". I mean, think of the self control it takes to keep from defending yourself when someone says something rude or untrue about you. It even takes a boat load (or more) of self control just to keep from speaking sarcastically. I can see how, if we could get this one part of our lives under the control of the Holy Spirit, we could also have the self control to control the rest of our bodies.
In essence, it all boils down to what we are sowing to (Galatians 6:6-10). We have the choice to sow to things of the flesh (words of anger and defense, sarcasm, or just words that are plain useless) or to things of the spirit (words of life, encouragement, and of God); and what we sow to we will also reap (vs. 8).
I'll be honest, I'm not completely sure if I'm ready to go so far as to make an honest commitment to stop speaking sarcastically because I have created quite a habit in that area and breaking it will be one of the hardest things I've ever done. In fact, by my own effort, I'd go so far as to say it is impossible. It will surely take the grace of God and through His grace all things are possible (praise the Lord!).
Truth be told, just practicing not speaking negative things in a serious matter will keep me thoroughly busy for awhile, I am discovering... Hey, it's a start right?
1 comment:
This is a huge challenge for me as well! And it's very easy to make a goal to "just stop doing it" and then have the conviction fade. We can do it with God's help! May He bless you as you try to become more like Him by confronting this issue in your life!
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