War of Words

I love words and I hate them. Spoken or written, words can both give hope and destroy hearts. Even in the social media world of words, I continue in my conflicted state. I resisted jumping in during the early days as people started blogging and tweeting. It would frustrate me to see all the brown nosing that goes on as some are trying to expand their platform. In the writing world, the number of followers equates to your likelihood of getting a publishing contract. I cannot judge the motive of others’ hearts, but many comments in Twitter land appear contrived to gain the attention of someone or as an attempt to leverage their followers so someone else will return the favor. Yet at the same time, there is so much great and constructive perspective that is now at our fingertips due to the same mechanisms that frustrate me.As I was doing my mental gymnastics about words last week, wouldn’t you know that the Lord would remind me of what really is important. Having just finished going through the Sermon on the Mount in my Priority Time, I found myself in Matthew reading of the leper that knelt down before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Now, there is whole sermon in this one statement about the faith of this leper, but what came to my attention was how Jesus responded to the question. With just four words Jesus answered the leper: “I will; be clean.”Now, if I were the Son of God and had the power to heal, I bet I would elaborate on the whole miracle a little bit more. The orator in me would seize the opportunity to wax eloquent. Not Jesus. In just four words, He says all that He needs to say. Beyond limiting His own communication, He then instructs the leper, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for proof to them.”We can use so many words, but really the most telling is our actions. For both Jesus and the leper, the absence of words speaks volumes. What stirred in me is the question that I will pose to you: Where do you need to stop speaking and just start acting?Words can be powerful, but they can also be empty. In those areas of our lives where we struggle to have victory, those closest to us get sick of the repetitive promises to do better. Are you trying to break a habit? Is there an area of your marriage that you have sworn 100 times to react differently to the next time? In your relationship with God, is He hearing the same words out of your mouth but just waiting for your actions to change?Early in our marriage, Chris kept telling me how much I needed to be in the Bible. I got defensive and tuned him out. By God’s grace, he decided to stop trying to use words and quietly live out pursuing God in front of me. It didn’t take long for me to see that He had something I wanted.Where do you need to exchange words for action? Who is waiting for you to be quiet?