Fear No Fear

“Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building up, that it may give grace to the listeners” (Ephesians 4:29, MEV). Cambridge dictionary says that unwholesome means not good for you, and likely to have a bad effect on your life either physically, morally, or emotionally. Merriam-Webster’s says it is detrimental to physical, mental, or moral well-being and offensive to the senses. You would THINK that it would be easy to avoid that kind of talk. Yet how often do we experience negative behaviour from a child or co-worker and say ‘they always do that’. That’s a negative confession. How often do you find yourself saying that BLAH always makes you sick? That you ALWAYS cut yourself in the kitchen? Or that you can’t go out drinking now that you’re married because you’d ALWAYS be tempted to stray? We tell ourselves things ALL THE TIME. We also tell all those around us. When we are children in school, we do repetitive learning. The same letters, words, and numbers written over and over again. The same sentences and concepts. Because we humans learn from repetition. When we speak words that are unwholesome, we are learning to expect that. When we hear unwholesome words spoken, we are learning that is what others expect. It can come from private conversation, public conversation, entertainment, or written words. When we surround ourselves with unwholesome words, we train ourselves to expect unwholesome circumstances. On the other hand, God told His people right from the beginning to keep HIS Word before their eyes, in their ears, and in their mouths (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 16:8; Proverbs 4:21). That doesn’t mean quote scripture at all times – that would make you a weird conversationalist. But it DOES mean not to speak ANYTHING that doesn’t line up with the Word. Not to speak ANYTHING whose value isn’t intimately tied with the Word. It’s simpler to do than you think, because the Word is ALWAYS ‘now’. Always for today. Always relevant. Also, the majority of human interaction travels around the same basic circles that it did thousands of years ago and will continue around them until the end comes. We’re very predictable people. So make an effort to get the Word into you so that you can be predictable positive in your speech. Stop being predictably unwholesome. Change your words to the kind the Lord says, and see how different your world will become – in a positive and WHOLESOME way.