May my mouth speak Your wonderful words of life.

Saturday, April 23, 2016 Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego

Scripture reading:  1 Sam 27   1 Chron 9   Psalm 141   Matt 10

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Ps 141:3  Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. NKJV

O.  The Psalmist recognized how easy it is to sin with the tongue.  Prov 21:23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. NKJV  Santiago writes in James 3:5-6 See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. NKJV

A.  I confess... I struggle with a fast mouth.  I call it the St. Peter disease.  He was always blurting out something at the wrong time.  At the Transfiguration of Jesus both Mark and Luke say something like “Peter did not know what to say so he said...”  Sometimes I shut my mouth after it is too late.  I don’t know what to say, so I say... something that should not have been said.  It is impossible to capture those spoken words and swallow them after they have been spoken. 

When in high school and college I didn’t like the true and false kind of tests.  I liked the kind that let me write out a long answer.  Why?  Because I could write two pages on a subject I knew nothing about and often got a good grade.  But with true and false... I had a 50/50 chance of getting a zero on that question.  So I later sometimes found my mouth in motion before my brain was engaged and not really saying anything worthwhile at all... It’s the St. Peter disease.

P.  Today, dear Lord, I join the psalmist praying, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.”  When I am not prepared to speak or when my fast mouth is about to do damage... set a guard over my lips.  Help me learn that silence is better than speaking the wrong thing.  You can help me to pause and meditate upon the words I will speak.  Your words were “wonderful words of life”.  Jesus, I want to be like You.  Amen.

Ralph

Wonderful Words of Life

By Philip P. Bliss 1874

1.    Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty.

o    Refrain:
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

2.    Christ, the blessed One, gives to all
Wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life;
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven.

3.    Sweetly echo the Gospel call,
Wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
Sanctify us forever.