Being busy is overrated, slow down, take a sip

and refresh yourself with the Word.

-Starla Smith 

Today’s Sip & Refresh: 

James 3:5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

This whole chapter is one big warning to us, but this verse stood out to me. The power of the tongues cannot be denied. It has the power of life and death in it and yet it is one of the smallest parts of the body. Just before this verse, these scriptures compare the tongue to a bit in a horse’s mouth or a rudder on a ship. A bit and a rudder is able to move a horse or a ship where ever it wants them to turn. The same goes for the tongue. Where it flaps, I will follow. A 1789 French Revolutionary said, “The tongue is the enemy of the neck.” Your tongue has the tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person. Basically, I slit my own throat by my inability to control my tongue. Therefore, death comes. My tongue has the power to drive my life if I let it.
In thinking of this power, I noticed in the following verses that envy and self-seeking are outcomes of someone who lets their tongue flap. We are told that if we have these in our hearts we boast and lie against the truth. I don’t know about you but I don’t want that for my life. I want the last line of this chapter to be a norm for me. It says, “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” So how do we become people who “make peace?” I make peace by not thinking too highly of my own opinions and just plain out by keeping my mouth shut. I just think of all the relational junk piles I have stepped into in my life, through using my tongue in response to having envy (needing to defend my abilities & defend my own ways and thoughts) and self-seeking (using manipulation to get what I think I deserve) in my heart. I am so thankful for the Prince of Peace who comes to teach us about what peace really is. In Isaiah 32:17 we are told what the effect of peace is, it is quietness and assurance ( or confidence.) Peace comes from a heart that is quietly trusting in God and so confident in who Christ has made us to be that we don’t have to open our mouths to defend ourselves, make ourselves look good, or hustle for our worth. Thank you, Jesus, for that!

If I boast, I boast of Jesus and the cross. Any fire He wants to start in me, I’m in, lite me up!

Thanks for listening,

Starla