Words

Your words are so important. They give life to the thoughts you allow to occupy your heart and mind. That doesn't mean you should be fake about anything, forcing yourself to act a certain way out of fear, obligation, or guilt. If you're concerned about your circumstances, then be honest with God about your thoughts and feelings.

However, it does mean you should be intentional about what you declare with your voice. Everything you judge out of anger, fear, or pain doesn't just leave your mouth as rocks thrown at the darkness. They stay. They create an atmosphere of thought and perception that drains life from you and anyone around you. You can become so focused on finding fault in what others believe, that what you hate ends up defining you more than what you yourself believe. An obsession with being right often leads to the greatest deception.

Condemning a person, city, or nation is literally a curse. A curse is declaring and treating someone as having lesser value than you think you have. A curse is holding your love back because you think someone hasn't done enough to earn it. A curse is any word, action, or inaction projected toward others that is at odds with how God sees them. God hasn't given authority to you to waste on cursing behavior. He's entrusted you with power to heal, bless, build up, and equip people for who they can become in Him. The world has enough problems with those who choose evil without you abandoning God's grace to condemn it with the enemy's accusations.

The judgments we make as God's children have nothing to do with identifying people's sin and what punishment is deserved. Jesus was already punished for it all. The judgments you do get to make are how much grace is needed by a person, city, or nation to be transformed, and then to declare it, demonstrate it, and live it. Don't tell people what's wrong with them, offer them what's missing. Jesus' encounters with people always filled in the gaps for them—forgiveness, healing, deliverance, encouragement, wisdom, and physical food. Even just simple acceptance for someone who lived in constant rejection was completely transforming. When you speak the grace, healing, joy, wisdom, power, promises, and purposes God has given to you over yourself, your family, and your circumstances, the atmosphere you create becomes a life–giving environment that heals, blesses, and empowers people.

Let God renew your mind and heal your heart until your words connect people to God's love for them, who He wants to be for them, and who they can become in Him . . . starting with yourself.

"God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did" (Romans 4:17b).