The Tongue - Week 6

   "I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress."

Psalm 17:3b  (ESV)

One of my favorite words is "intentionality."  We do many things in life with intention, don't we?  One of my first intentions every day is to get up on time.  Sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't.  My first intention once I am awake and out of bed is to get coffee.  Now that is an intention I live by!

Purposing to do or not do something, especially when it comes to the tongue sounds easy enough!  But as we saw in the first lesson on the tongue from the book of James, the tongue is far from easy to control.  If we want to get a mastery over our tongue, it is going to take a lot of purposing in our mind and heart that we will only use our tongue to bless.

A couple chapters later in the Psalms we find a passage that could become the actual intention for us to say, write, pray and meditate on:

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable in your sight,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

If you have a problem with your mouth, like I do, do you think it would be helpful to pray this verse each morning?  Maybe when you are doing something with your mouth in the morning, like brushing your teeth, you could repeat these words.  Just typing this makes me want to write them out and put them on my bathroom mirror.

Can you think of any other ways to help yourself not sin with your mouth? Leave ideas in the comments below.  Thanks for sharing.