Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. (Matthew 12:33-35)
No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:8)
Do you ever wonder why you said something you didn’t mean? Have you ever tried to say only good things and find that you curse when you get mad? Have you prayed that God would stop you from saying bad things and yet you can’t seem to find success in the area of your tongue? What is the source of all these hurtful words? Your tongue…or is it?
Matthew tells us that you can judge the tree by its fruit. If the tree is bad, you will get bad fruit. But if the tree is good, it will produce good fruit. To change the fruit you need to go back to the tree and treat it. The same thing applies to our words. Matthew also tells us that “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”. If we have a problem with our speech, it won’t be found in the tongue. That is the end result. We have to go back to the source of our speech, which is rooted in the heart.
Dr. Sam Peeples said it best, “What’s down in the well…comes up in the bucket”. We speak angry words because we have an angry heart. We lash back with hurtful words because we are hurt. Since no man can tame his tongue, we need God’s help. Only He can tame our tongues. If we want to speak kind and loving words, we need to clean up the toxic source. When we clean up our hearts by confessing our anger to God, He can then give us the fruit of the Holy Spirit to fill its place. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). What a difference our words would make when they are rooted in a heart controlled by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that you deny being hurt. That would be deceitful. It means that you recognize that you are hurt, and then hand the hurt over to God. Forgive the other person for hurting you, and ask God to fill you with His love for that person. When you speak to them after that, your words will be rooted in love not anger.
Listen to your words today and be honest with yourself. If you really want to have words that lift other people up, you need to examine your heart for any sin that is lurking. Clean it up so that the overflow that comes out of your heart will be a refreshing spring. If you need help from God’s word, take some time to read the book of Proverbs. Underline every verse that talks about our words or tongue. God has a lot to say about what we say and how we say it.