Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go to this video link to hear an anonymous group singing Let It Begin With Me, … reminding us just how important it is to do all we can to inhibit our tongues, pens, or keyboards in our attempt to let meekness and self-control prevail … with the goal of being the peacemakers whom Jesus blessed on that mountainside near Capernaum.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: James 3: 18 [NKJV] …
18 The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace
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Highlight Passage [Context] – NKJV: James, Chapter 3 [NKJV] Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1: Matthew 5: 9 [NKJV] …
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Reference Passage #2: Proverbs 21: 23 [NKJV] …
23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.
Reference Passage #2: Galatians 5: 16-24 [NKJV] … [especially noting verse 23, where the fruit of the Spirit gentleness (i.e., meekness) and self control are highlighted] … Go to this link …
Reference Passage #4: Ephesians 4: 29 [NKJV] …
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
My Journal for Today: This morning as I munched and meditated on the Our Daily Bread devotional entry, it really broke me open with conviction. It was pointedly getting to our need as Christians to avoid letting our very human emotions get the best of us and loosing the almost untamable tongue (or these day, the keyboard) to spew evil or anger when we lose the self control and gentleness, which we do have available to us as Christians (see Galatians 5: 23. However, we all too often let our base nature prevail when we’re angry; and we become anti-peacemakers in the process.
The devotional today related the story of President Harry Truman who had a personal rule … that he would write, but never mail, a letter during his presidency when he was angry until 24 hours after the letter was written. It is said he had a large file of such letters – not mailed – when he left office. And that’s a good rule to help us do what Jesus’ brother, James, wrote about in James, Chapter 3 as he described the vile nature of the human tongue to get so out of control at times that we spew forth vile poison in anger which we so often regret once we’ve let it out without the restraint of God’s Spirit.
Take note of two of the reference verses above, namely Prov. 21: 23 and Eph. 4: 29, penned by Solomon and Paul which help our flesh be constrained in what we let out of the mouth or when we write things reflexively. And note how the Apostle Paul’s self-constraining rule for our speaking added a helpful sub-rule … that we not say (or may I add, WRITE) anything unless it provides edification or grace to the recipient of our words.
In these days of rapid, almost immediate, verbal interaction on social media, like Facebook or Twitter, we can, and often do, get ourselves in trouble by “tweeting” or posting replies which totally break the intent of the Scriptural guidelines above; and we lose the blessing which Jesus had for those who can – and do – restrain their tongues, pens, or keyboards and are those who are the peacemakers in this world.
Oh how I invoke the prayer of the familiar song to which I’ve linked you above … “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
My Prayer for Today … Lord, that’s my prayer today. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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