Dear Ones,
Hope you have a faith-filled day. Today is a special day for Al and I as we celebrate our wedding anniversary and thank the Lord for the 60 years He has given us together. We plan to go out to eat but our real celebration is next weekend with all our immediate family together.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We may not think our words matter, but they are important. We are to live and walk in faith, so our words should not carry doubts or unbelief. As John said in I John 5:4, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Faith isn’t a feeling, but the most important thing is that we express our faith through love. (Gal. 5:6) The enemy wants to deceive us and get us to put our faith in anything but God and His hope-filled and love-filled words that bring encouragement to us and to others.
It is powerful when we speak our faith aloud and confess with our mouths what scripture says. What would happen if all of us who know the Lord spoke faith-filled words rather than idle words that we will one day have to give an account for? It is better to be quiet than to speak biting and gossiping words, or any words that don’t line up with scripture. Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”  (I John 6:63)
When I was a young girl, my mom had teenage girls over for missionary sewing, rolling bandages, etc., working on the ping pong table in our basement. Once, I put a recorder under the table and then later played it back and we all got a taste of what we sounded like and talked about. It was very revealing and would have been even more revealing if my mom had not been at the table with us.
There are so many scriptures about our tongues; we need to guard our mouths and not speak fearful words. We can fight fear with God’s word and cast all our cares on the Lord. I try to memorize scriptures on fear so that when I am in a difficult situation,  those words will be in my heart and I can boldly speak them out.  It’s not just what we say, but how we say it and when we say it. Our words should be life-giving and give others hope.
Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to guide your tongue that you would speak words of faith and love in the power of the Spirit.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy