Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 8, No. 37
“He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.” (Prov 13:3NIV)
Who is Solomon speaking to here? He is speaking to anyone who cares to listen. And what is he saying? He is saying that the one who guards his lips guards his life. In other words, one way to keep yourself safe in this world is to always watch what comes out of your mouth.
Sadly, many people don’t watch what comes out of their mouths. Instead, they say anything that enters their minds. Why? They are not functioning with the consciousness that anything that we say with our mouths has consequences. See, if you always consider what might be the consequences of what you are about to say, you will never be careless in saying anything. But if you will not consider the consequences of what you want to say, you will just speak on the basis of how you feel. And where that will take you may not be where you ever want to go in life.
For instance, we are told in the bible of a man called Gaal who came to live in Shechem during the short reign of Abimelech son of Gideon. The man was a very loud person, someone that only knew how to use his mouth but not his head. And when he came to Shechem, he began to boast of how powerful he was and how he could fix Abimelech for them. In fact, once, while he was having a feast with the people and they all were getting drunk, he told the people that he would tell Abimelech to call out his whole army and fight him. So, they all put their trust in him. (Cf. Judges 9:26-29)
But then, Gaal only spoke that day out of the abundance of the wine he had drunk. He actually did not expect anybody to take what he said very seriously, not even to talk of telling Abimelech. But somebody told Abimelech. So, he did show up with his army. Look at what is reported in the bible about the situation:“So Abimelech and all his troops set out by night and took up concealed positions near Shechem in four companies.
Now Gaal son of Ebed had gone out and was standing at the entrance to the city gate just as Abimelech and his soldiers came out from their hiding place. When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!” Zebul replied, “You mistake the shadows of the mountains for men.” But Gaal spoke up again: “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and a company is coming from the direction of the soothsayers’ tree.” Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your big talk now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should be subject to him?’ Aren’t these the men you ridiculed? Go out and fight them!”” (Judg 9:34-38NIV)
Did you see that? That man used his mouth to invite trouble on himself and on the people of Shechem. Yet he had no power to deal with the problem he created. So, he brought death on many of the people of the land, as the account further shows us. In any case, the point of it all is that we must learn to guard our lips. Yes, we must learn to consider carefully anything we want to say before we say it. It may just be the difference between life and death or success and failure for us. And only God knows how many have ruined their lives, homes, communities and even countries through some careless and useless statements.
Mind you, this is not just about what we say to others or about others. It is also about what we say to ourselves and about ourselves and what we say to God and about God. If you are continually calling death and failure on your life, because of the way you feel or because of the things happening to you and around you, that is what you are going to get. But if you will learn to speak only life to yourself and about yourself, you will find that life, progress, joy and peace are always accompany you wherever you go.
Also, if you talk loosely to God or about Him, showing Him no respect or honour in what you say, you will someday have to pay for it. A man’s life was taken by God when he was supposed to be enjoying his prosperity, simply because he would not honour God with his prosperity. Also, Herod was struck dead by an angel of God because of a proud speech that he once gave. And who knows how many have lost their lives in the same manner because of the arrogant words they spoke before God? Only God Himself! (Cf. Luke 12:16-21; Acts 12:20-23)So, guard your lips always. That way, you will be guarding your life too.
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