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Several times in the New Testament Christians are warned about how they use language. Even those things that might seem "harmless" can fall into the category of "worldly and empty chatter" [1 Timothy 6:20].
One of the most encouraging passages in the Bible for me is found in
Malachi 3:16-18. The context of the passage is that some people had been saying that serving God seemed useless when all around them the wicked were prospering. It seemed to these observers that nothing in the world around them gave them a reason to keep on serving God.
In contrast, those who feared the Lord "talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard." In the presence of Almighty God, a scroll was prepared with the record of those conversations that honored God, and He pronounced them, "Mine." Those conversations among believers caused an action in heaven.
We're not talking about the "Book of Life" here, but a separate scroll that He keeps -- sort of a coffee table book of those He's proud of, His scrapbook of those who use their tongues to honor Him.
It also caused an action on earth. God said that there was a coming day in which He would "make up my treasured possession." In the world around them, where the faithless had said that serving God didn't make any difference, in that same world God would draw a line, so to speak, and show which were His and which were not.
"I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."
How powerful our words are! What potential for harm and good, both on earth and in heaven!
 Latayne C. Scott |
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