Daily Devotions

Prov 25:18 A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.

Do you ever stop and think of how much power there is in the words that we speak? The gospel message is of course the power of God and we know that when we speak for Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit of God that is a powerful thing. Ever Christian has at least one time been moved by the power of preaching. But what of our ordinary words, the words that come out of our mouths in everyday conversation and living, are they as powerful? This wise saying in the book of Proverbs suggests that they are. Here it speaks about a false witness and what his words can do, how they can be used. First they can be a maul. A maul was used to smash things. I still use one today when splitting wood. When you split wood you do not cut it, you smash it hard on one end and it splinters, or splits apart. At times the maul will miss hit and bounce off, often striking my leg when that happens. It always huts, leaves an ugly looking mark that stays with me for days, and causes me to limp for a few hours as well. The first thing our words can be is a maul, hurting and crushing people. The next is a sword. A sword is or was used to cut deep into someone. Not like a maul, a sword will penetrate, it cuts deep and while it may not seem to inflict the same type of damage a maul will, it can kill. A sword cuts going in and going out as well. Words like a sword can cut and even if one says they take them back they cut going the other way as well. The last thing is an arrow. Unlike a maul that needs to be used close up, or like a sword that is swung, an arrow can be shot from a distance and it goes deep as well, often going right through the target. The thing about an arrow is that the target may not even see it coming. We can often hurt people deeply with our words. Keep this little proverb in you mind before you speak to someone. Our words may hurt them, or they may be repeated to hurt someone very far away.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2014 at 6:25 am and is filed under Daily Devotions. You can skip to the end and leave a response.