CONVERSATION PEACE

My mouth has the power to bring life or death (Proverbs 18:21) with the words I speak. Even when someone is rubbing me the wrong way, it’s my responsibility to hold my tongue or speak words of love. Yet, in times of sinfulness, slights fall off my lips with immediate regret. Praise God for his convictions upon my behavior!

Whenever I read today’s verse, I’m reminded of the battle between predator and prey in the animal kingdom. The hunt and kill instinct is natural because of the need to be fed, but the horrific brutality of this natural process can be cringe-worthy when witnessing one animal tearing apart another. As God’s people we, too, can become participants in similar brutality when we shred each other apart using godless words fueled by gossip, condescension or anger.

While we may not strip flesh from bone when verbally attacking one another, there is a stripping away of our ability to recognize that the person across from us, whom we’re exchanging poisonous barbs with, was created in God’s likeness. That they are the Lord’s image bearer. No good comes as a result of pouncing on another to prove a point or win an argument. Not to mention the corruption taking place within our own hearts and being displayed in our outward character.

As believers, it might be tempting to engage in a heated debate or gossip session but it only results in tainting our witness to a lost and broken world. Its ruler, Satan, thrives on creating disharmony among people.

Even though we were once enemies of God, we are enemies no more. We are redeemed creatures who must intentionally interact with others in ways that bring restoration and healing to a person we once saw as difficult and unloveable. Oh God, let conversation peace begin with me! Teach me to hold my tongue or only speak that which is edifying, encouraging and loving to the individual across from me.

Heavenly Father, let it be me who stops a heated exchange with someone before it can ever begin. May I leave the room rather than leave your image bearer a wounded person. Help me to be quick to listen, slow to speak and even slower to become angry (James 1:19). Give me words of love, healing, mercy and compassion when speaking to those who may enjoy being wicked. Let me see them through your eyes and respond with love. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.

Throughout this day: Read through Galatians 5 and James 3, stopping once in a while to meditate on and absorb God’s truths. Take what you have read and, prayerfully, apply it to your life, especially when you sense a heated situation with a difficult person.