Words can be a snare

Like the inscet traped in the spider's web, words can be a snare! This was something I deliberately wanted to commit to do yesterday but was not completely successful.

In our anxiety to make things happen for our loved ones we may inevitabily foul up in "pressing" circumstances. Time always tests our level of patience and resolve. Again as a reminder this morning, I read this ancient Chinese proverb, which drove home the point clearly:

Three gatekeepers are commanded to halt
and ask a question of every word
that passes through your mouth

If the word cannot answer "yes" to each question
It cannot proceed.

The first gatekeeper will ask, "Is it true?"
The second gatekeeper will ask, "Is it kind?"
The third gatekeeper will ask, "Is it necessary?"

Wow! Isn't this the world we would like to live in... peaceful, truthful, kind, gracious, and I can go on and on with these positive superlitives and virtues! Unfortunately or fortunately I don't live in that type of a world because of me! As long as I have the wrong attitude in my heart about any issue, out of its abundance my mouth will speak. This is especially true of our "brothers" whom we think critically of, on many grounds. Putting this in context of the Scripture passage you will find Matthew chapter 12 verse 34 very interesting!

Mat 12:32 If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you're sawing off the branch on which you're sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.

Mat 12:33 "If you grow a healthy tree, you'll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you'll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree.

Mat 12:34 "You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It's your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words.

Mat 12:35 A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard.

Mat 12:36 Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously.

Mat 12:37 Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation." (Message version)

I am more determined now, especially since we are praying for our "brothers" in Malaysia, to know the heart of our Father for them. More so now then ever since the season is changing from winter to spring...a revival wind blowing over this nation! Let's continue to pray for the gatekeepers who guard our lips so that we will not be tool of strife in the hands of the enemy!