Encouraging Word

As we end this series on the words of our mouth, I hope more than anything you realize how much our words matter. Way back when we started this series, we talked about sounds being the smallest particles that are distinguishable scientifically. I was surprised by that, but then amused, that when God spoke the world into existence His words were actual particles of matter. Wild isn’t it! Well, we know the great damage that can be done with words, and we also know what great blessing can come from the words of life that we speak. I know I am certainly trying to be more accountable for my words. I want to make sure that no corrupt communication comes out of my mouth. I want to make sure that those around me know I love and value them. I want to make sure that I encourage strangers, as well as those I know. I want those in our own church body to know how valuable and precious they are to me. I want my friends to know they not only make life fun, they encourage and bless me all the time. Truly there is enough garbage in the world to have to deal with, let’s make life a little lighter for those around us. Let’s uplift and build. Let’s help carry heavy burdens. Let’s make it easy for those around us to grow into all God wants for them. We can do that with words. We can say with David, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh God, my Rock and my Redeemer, and then use our words to SPEAK UP!

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Eword for KIDz

Intro:
Hi, this is Dorette with eword for kids today. It is so important that we watch what our eyes see, what our ears hear, and what we say. We’re going to talk about that today. Here is your eword for kids today.

Oh be careful little mouth what you say, oh be careful little mouth what you say, for the Father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little mouth what you say. We really do need to be careful of the things we say from our lips. Do you know what David said about his words in Ps 17:3? He was talking to God and asking God to hear his prayer. He said, though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing, I have resolved that my mouth will not sin. I think those are excellent words. We can make that same kind of resolve. Our mouth doesn’t have to lead us down the path to trouble, it can lead us in the path of righteousness, when we choose to speak words that bring life. If we want to be careful about what we say, we also have to be careful about what we think about. We have to be cautious about our thought life, because if we let thoughts hang around which aren’t Godly, we will begin to speak words that aren’t Godly. Taking it back another step, we need to watch what we let in our eyes and our ears, so that the things we hear and the things we watch don’t make our thoughts go any place they should not go. That sounds really bad, but a place your thoughts shouldn’t take you is that you are ugly, or worthless, or unloved, or nobody wants you. God would never say that about you, and if your thought are telling you that, they are not God thoughts. So if we want to watch what we say, we need to watch what goes in our eyes and our ears, and especially watch what we think about. So I want to remind you…..cover your eyes, or put in ear plugs! It is that important. To keep your mouth from sin we must resolve to think about, listen to and watch only things that build us up on the inside.

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Is it time for you to find your voice? That may seem like a funny question, but once you learn how important words are, it is time for us to speak up! We can speak words that lift up and build up, and we can also start speaking about what we are passionate about. God has given you a voice, and it is time to start using it! I know lots of you might be trembling in your shoes right now, but God has called the body of Christ to stand up for righteousness, to stand up for truth, and to stand up for Godliness. What area within the body of Christ are you passionate about? Because we have adopted a child, I love speaking up about adoption. Because I’ve miscarried a baby, I love encouraging women who have as well. Because I had 4 pregnancies and deliveries painfree, I love speaking about supernatural childbirth. I love teaching God’s Word, and I love speaking God’s truths to anyone who will listen. So I’ve told you some of the ways I speak up, what has God called for you to speak up about? Have you been delivered from alcohol or drugs? There are lots of people who need to hear you voice. Has God brought you out of bondage, into freedom in Christ, speak up! If you’ve experienced the goodness of God on any level, others need to hear about it. You can use what you have been through to be a blessing to others. Don’t be shaking in your boots! His promise is that when you need to speak He will give you the words. So get ready. Find someone who needs to hear your story. Find someone who needs encouragement, and speak UP!

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If we really are a new creation, our mouth should show it! I love the verse in II Cor 5;17 that says if any man (or woman) is in Christ, he/she is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things have become new. It sounds like our mouth should be different too, because we are a new creation on the inside! Romans 12:2 reminds us not to be conformed any longer to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. How we think affects what we say, and the new creation on the inside should change how we talk. Here are some things a new creation doesn’t do:
Nag Prov 21:19 – desert is better than a nagging wife
Meddle Prov 26:17 like one who seizes a dog by its ears
Brag Prov 27:2 – let someone else praise you
Quarrel Prov 17:14 – starting a quarrel is like unleasing a dam
Swear or Curse Prov 4:24 – put away corrupt speaking
So what are some things a new creation does say? Just the opposite of what we just talked about!
Instead of nagging, we ask nicely once, and make sure they hear you.
Instead of meddling, we become problem solvers by believing the best.
Instead of bragging, we have a humble heart, that brags on others.
Instead of quarreling, we become peacemakers in the midst of turmoil.
Instead of cursing, we speak words of blessing.
Is your mouth showing you are a new creation? The old is gone, let the new you speak words of blessing!

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Words are important in prayer! What should we be praying for our country today? Two very familiar passages of scripture come to mind. The first is in II Chron 7:14 which says that if God’s people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray and seek His face, He will hear us, and forgive us, and heal our land. God’s answer to forgive us and heal our land is available, our assignment is to humble ourselves and pray to Him. The second familiar scripture is in I Tim 2:1-4 which reminds us of these important things:
1) We should offer intercession and prayer for everyone, especially leaders, spiritual and political because it is our priority assignment as believers.
2) We can affect culture by our prayers, and live a quiet and peaceable life.
3) By praying this way, we can see the gospel have an open door so more and more people will come to know God.

Each of these scriptures reminds us that we have a job to do. We don’t usually find evidence in the history books where leaders took time to pray, but there are many instances when prayer changed things dramatically, from overcoming disagreements during the writing of the Constitution, to overcoming slavery during President Lincoln’s term in office, to more recently bringing down the Berlin Wall, and the Iron Curtain. God only knows how many unrecorded events were altered because of the prayers of God’s people. Today is an important day, but everyday is an important day to pray for our nation. Our words matter in prayer, so take some time today, to pray God’s Word over our country. We need His guidance, His direction, and His wisdom, so we can continue to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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Do you know that it is possible to have a Spirit controlled tongue? We really need the Holy Spirit’s Power to control what we say. If we look at some key verses in James chapter 3, we can see that the outcome of this little rudder in our mouth can be pretty deadly. I’ve experience it both ways, and you probably have to! You’ve probably said some poisonous words, and you’ve probably had some spoken to you. Either way, we know the result isn’t good. When we say words we wish we wouldn’t have, we feel bad, and when words are said to us that shouldn’t have been said, it makes us feel bad. Feeling bad is no good! So how can we keep from speaking words that bring death and destruction?
First we need to reprogram our minds. We must make a decision to change how we think. (as a man thinks so is he!)
Then we need to discipline ourselves to keep our resolve.
Lastly, we know what we need to do, so let’s put it into practice! Here’s some great scriptures for you as a reminder:
Col 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Eph 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Phil 2:14-15 Do everything without grumbling or complaining, so you may become blameless and pure, children of God without guile in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like lights in the universe.
The Bible is full of reminders for us about the words we speak. So let’s watch what we think, discipline ourselves, and just put it into practice. Our words are powerful!

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Intro:
One of my favorite verses about prayer comes right out of James 5:16. I especially like it in the Amplified Bible! It says, The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) makes great power available, effective in it’s working. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your daily eword. I really like the part of the verse that says great power is made available when we pray. Here is your daily eword about the power of our words in prayer.

Monday
There are some pretty amazing verses in the Bible that almost sound too good to be true when it comes to prayer. Our words have the power of life and death within them, and God makes it very clear that although we have a choice about what we say, His choice for our words is that we choose life! God wants our words to be life giving and beneficial to the hearer. Another of those astounding verses is in James 1:5 which says that if we lack wisdom, ask of God, and He will give it to us liberally. It is amazing to think that God is willing to give the wisdom we need, if only we ask. Mark 11:24 is another astounding scripture. It says whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. God’s heart for us is that we are so connected to Him that the requests we ask for would be in line with his will for us. God loves to answer prayer! He is the one who invented it. Do these words from Matthew 7:7 and 8 sound too good to be true? Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. It sounds like if we want answered prayer, we should be asking, seeking and knocking. So with your mouth, you can!

We have a lot to be praying for as believers. We should regularly be praying for our own families, our church locally, for Christians around the world, our communities, the lost, our nation, and our leaders both spiritual and political. I know sometimes it can seem like there is just too much to be praying for. Well, just like anything in God, you don’t have to do it all at once. We can start with a teaspoon and then bring out the backhoe. I love it that we don’t have to feel like we have totally covered one area before we can move on to the next! We don’t even have to be walking in total health to pray for someone who is sick. Just look at the first part of James 5:16….it says to pray for each other, that you may be healed! So as we think about our words when it comes to prayer, let’s make a decision to just pray. Be a person of prayer. Pray without ceasing. Pray when it is convenient, and when it isn’t. Pray when you feel like it, and when you don’t! Prayer isn’t optional for the believer…..it should be as natural for us a breathing, so I’m encouraging you….Just do it! Let’s be people who pray!

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“Prayer is the conduit through which the power from heaven is brought to earth.” O. Hallesby once said that. That gives us such a great word picture about the heaven – earth connection. “Prayer is the conduit through which the power from heaven is brought to earth.” Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer that He desired for God’s kingdom to come and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we pray, we get to be a part of seeing that accomplished! We‘re bringing the power from heaven down to the earth. The Bible tells us to pray all manner of prayer. There are many kinds of prayer we can participate in. Prayer really does change things – and when we pray the prayer of agreement, or binding and loosing, or the prayer of faith, or the prayer of supplication, or intercessory prayer, or united prayer, or the prayer is worship and thanksgiving or the prayer is dedication and consecration, we open the windows of heaven to change situations on earth. I love it when prayer is answered quickly. To pray one day and have the answer the next is awesome. It is great when that happens. But there are times that we need to soak a situation in prayer, and believe long term that things are changing. It may not happen overnight, but God is at work and soon the situation will look very different from how it is now. The prayer of consecration and dedication is one that we can continue to do. Daily we can offer our lives to God to be a tool in His hands to be His hands and feet to a hurting world. Daily we can worship and praise as a prayer of thanksgiving and worship thanking God for who He is and what He has done in our lives. Daily we can bring our requests unto God and then thank Him that the answer is on its way. I hope this weeks encouraging word has made you more aware of our responsibility to be praying, and revealed the joys that result from our obedience. Let’s get disciplined in our Christian walk to make prayer a priority in our lives. Then our words can be part of the pipeline from heaven to earth, seeing God’s will done right here where we live. Let’s pray effectively, to accomplish what God want to have done on the earth!

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Hey kids, it’s Dorette with your daily eword. I hope you know how important our words are, and how important it is that we use our words to pray to God often, every day. I hope you make it a habit for life. Here is your eword for kids today.

Do you say grace before you eat, or take time to pray before you go to sleep each night? With the kids I’ve been talking to, those are usually the times kids take time to pray each day. I was so happy to hear that your parents have taught you well! It is very good to ask God to bless our food, and then to thank Him for providing it for us. It is also a good thing before you go to sleep to pray and ask God for his protection over your family, and for health and safety for those you love. Did you know that the Bible tells us in I Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without stopping? Do you think that really means that every moment of the day, our lips are moving and our vocal chords are being used to pray outloud to God? That would be silly, and not very realistic. We have to do things, and say things to other people, and it sound impossible. Well, what it does mean is that we can start our day with God and then have a running conversation with Him all day long. So when you are about to take a test at school, you can softly say under your breath, thank you God, for helping me remember all I studied. Or when your friend is sick, you can take time to pray for them, or even just put your hands on them and ask God to make them well. We can talk to God about disappointment, frustrations, and our joys and things that make us happy. He is our Lord, which makes Him our boss. Most bosses like it if you talk to them and ask them what He wants you to do. We can do the same with God. As we read His word, we can take the general direction from him and put it in operation in our life. So can you pray without stopping? Yes you can. If you make it a habit while you are a kid, it will be something that you can do your whole life long. What a great pattern for life!

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Everything you ever needed to know about prayer, you probably learned in Kindergarten! Remember the Stop, Look, Listen warning from your teacher or your parents about crossing the street? Those three words are good reminders for praying. Here’s a quick rundown. Stop – Push the off button! We need to be still because we are called to enter into the rest of God, and you can’t be resting and rushing at the same time! Stopping is Waiting – take a breather – give God more than just a moment of your time. Choose to spend time in His presence. Look for cues – God gives us spiritual vision. He wants to show us great and mighty things that we know not of, as it says in Jer 33:3. We are His sheep, but if we’re not looking His direction we might miss where He is leading. Listen – Be a listener – Unclog your ears. If you have ears to hear….really hear. You are His sheep, you know the sound of His voice. When you ask Him to lead you, He’ll bring the Word to your remembrance as it says in John 14:26. It is important for us to get the Word on the inside of us as it says in Matt 4:4 because we can’t live on natural food alone, God’s Word is sustenance to us. God isn’t trying to keep us from hearing Him. As it says in John 16:14-15, God will take what is His and reveal it to you! He longs for us to “hear” His voice. If you really are committed to using words from your mouth in prayer to God, we can put these principles into action. Let’s stop, let’s look and then let’s listen. We have the ability to connect up with the power of God and see things change. I am so grateful we don’t have to settle for our own ability, or to settle for how things are when it comes to circumstances we are facing. Things are subject to change, we are subject to change…..and the most exciting thing is that God is not. He never changes, so we can count on Him. What a secure place to rest.

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