Bridle That Tongue

Can I just say it?

In 2020 it’s hard not to complain. I found myself doing a fair bit of it, honestly, and then I was reminded of this scripture:

There are lots of ways we need to bridle our tongue. Speaking with kindness, not gossiping, speaking blessing instead of curses, speaking life and not death … and speaking thankfulness instead of complaining.

As believers, the ability to exercise self-control and speak life, void of complaining, is crucial. Hard, but crucial. Without it, our religion is futile.

I hear it gets easier with practice.

You know who didn’t learn this lesson well?

The Israelites. And because of it, for forty years they walked around in the wilderness, complaining. Grumbling. See Numbers 14 for the full scoop. They lacked faith, perpetually complained, and voila … forty years in cactus-land.

God has been speaking to me about being intentionally thankful. So, this fall I will be starting a series of short and sweet posts on this very thing. The focus is going to be on attributes of God and moments of scripture that we just can’t help but be thankful for when we just stop and take a minute to meditate on it all.

And the more thankful we are … well, I like how James put it:

Good things happen when we choose to be thankful. When we choose to bridle our tongues. The test goes a whole lot better when we just do this. And yes, we have to train our hearts first. If our hearts are rotten, there’s no hope for our mouth.