TONGUE CONTROL

James 1:26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

This verse hits home doesn’t it? We say things that we wish we wouldn’t say. We know better, but we do it anyways. We sometimes say things that are out of character with our profession of faith. We say things flippantly about God that pricks our hearts later. We say things that are hurtful to others. We say things that are not sound Biblically. We say things that are to our advantage at the expense of others. We say things that we don’t mean because at the moment it spares us from embarrassment or a conflict we don’t want to be involved in. There are so many things we say that we shouldn’t say to others and about others. How do we stop doing it?

The only way to get our tongues under control is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it by ourselves. We must have the help of God. The more we are controlled by the Spirit, the less problem we will have. Godliness breeds godliness. If our hearts are pure before God, what comes out of our mouths will be good and not bad or evil. The Lord tempers our tongues with His righteousness. "Out of the heart, the mouth speaks." If you think you are right with God and cannot control what comes out of your mouth, you are only fooling yourself. Your profession of faith isn’t worth much if you have a loose tongue.

If you find yourself guilty of not being able to control your tongue, give it over to the Lord right now. Ask Him to take charge of your tongue that you might get a handle on this. Will we do it perfectly from now on? Of course, not. But, we will find that we will do better. And the more we live under the Lord’s control; we will find we will do better. An uncontrolled tongue is a spiritual problem and can only be fixed in Christ.