Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Jas 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Jas 3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jas 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
Jas 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Jas 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Cursing and blessing- out of the same mouth. How true this is for so many, unfortunately myself included. 'These things ought NOT so to be.' Like fountains- we don't expect to get sweet and bitter water from the same one- our mouths should not be cursing and blessing. Just as a fig tree cannot produce olive berries, and vines cannot produce figs, no fountain has salt and fresh water- these are FACTS, undisputed and undeniable. Yet, we are so unreliable, we are so confusing, we are incredibly unpredictable. We spew forth evil and then turn around and gush out love. We throw vile insults as other drivers as they pass us on the road and then go home and speak sweetly to our children. We verbally abuse others and then a moment later we are offering up loving words- how can it be? How?
I'll tell you how- Satan. At every opportunity Satan is there to provoke us and we fall to his provoking ways. We let Satan use us over and over and he will NEVER stop as long as we let him. He will never stop tempting us regardless of our state of being. Jesus was pure in all ways and He was tempted and tried. Satan will go after us, each one of us is another victory for him and he wants all the victories he can get. We must throw ourselves on the mercy of our Savior and beg Him to forgive us, to make us new in Him.
A 'wise man' - will 'show out of good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom'. GOOD conversation- not poisonous, not bitter, not abusive, not evil, not envying, not backbiting, not selfish, not vain, oh, I could go on and on and on but the truth is we know how bad our conversations can become. To have a 'good conversation' to speak only good, only lovingly, with meekness of wisdom- this is our desire! We don't want to have bitter envying, we don't want to have strife in our hearts, we don't want to glory in ourselves, we do not want to be liars. If our lives - our speech- is filled with all this negative evil then we know it is from Satan and not from God. We CANNOT allow envying and strife to fill our lives because from them come confusion and EVERY evil work. It is so incredibly important to really pay attention to how we speak because that is a very good gauge of what dwells within us.
If we find we are living lives filled with envying and strife we better get down on our knees and pray to God for forgiveness, for renewal in HIM, for cleansing from Him, for His blessing to give us His love, to replace our evil with His goodness. God will replace our evil with His wisdom, His purity, His peace, His gentleness, His compassion, His mercy- we need to be impartial and not hypocrites speaking one thing and living another. Please Lord we need the fruit of YOUR righteousness, Your PEACE to give us PEACE.
We cannot give up! We cannot lose hope no matter how hard Satan batters at us, no matter how many tiny victories he seems to score against us, we cannot give up! We have to plead for forgiveness, beg for mercy, we cannot lose hope!!!!
Please Lord, please, save us vile undeserving creatures who deserve to be lost, to be abandoned, to be destroyed! Only Your mercy saves us, only Your unfathomable mercy gives us hope. Please…save us, save us from ourselves and Satan who would have us be His. Forbid him from taking us Lord, please! Forbid Satan from overwhelming us with His evil, we would be YOURS, we choose YOU and YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS for we have none!
In Your love!!!!!!!!
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