Memory Verse Psalm 141:3-4

This week’s Fighter Verse (http://www.hopeingod.org/resources/scripture-memory/fighter-verse-program) is as follows:

Psalm 141:3-4 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil …

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just take a vow of silence and therefore control our tongue? It just doesn’t work that way. There are things we need to say correctly in order to obey God because Scripture teaches us what we must believe about God and what we must do to please God.  James (1:26-27) tells me that if I think I’m religious while letting my tongue run free then my religion is worthless. We are to submit ourselves in obedience to God in acts of charity (agape love) by ministering to the needy while keeping ourselves unstained by the world. I can’t be quiet if I’m going to minister to the needy. To meet physical needs while ignoring spiritual needs is disobedient to the Holy Spirit. It is just as disobedient as saying “be warmed and fed” when it is in our power to help with physical needs (James 2:16). Sometimes the emphasis is on the act and sometimes the emphasis is on the speaking. That is appropriate but the Church is charged with the Great Commission. The Gospel is good news and has content. We must speak to convey content and therefore we pray that God would set a guard over our speaking that we’d never be inclined to any false thought or word. James even cautions us about being teachers of the Word (James 3:1). We all sin and stumble and that is reflected in our thinking and speech. I have always worried more about speaking to 10 on Sunday morning about Scripture than when I was speaking to a thousand on a secular topic. Fidelity to the Word of God and precision in speaking it are naturally good goals but as James says, we stumble and as a teacher of the Word you are judged with greater strictness. Just as you can’t ride the horse without a bit or sail a ship without a rudder we must use our tongue. James reflects the psalmist’s concern when he says the tongue is a world of unrighteousness. We fallen men speak out of the abundance of our heart and must seek to keep our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit to guard our mouth, watch our lips, and keep our hearts from evil. God knows every word before it comes to our tongue (Psalm 139:4) so what better guard could we have? May the Holy Spirit grant us grace to accurately and precisely “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).