Can It Be Tamed?
Can It Be Tamed?
People get enjoyment in teaching animals to act in commercials. As the apostle James says, "Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind" (James 3:7). But there is something we cannot tame. All of us have trouble getting a little thing called the tongue under submission. "No man can tame the tongue," James tells us this in (James 3:8).
Why? Simply while our words may be on the tip of our tongue, they come from deep within each of us. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). The tongue can be used for both good and evil (James 3:9). As scholar Peter Davids put it, "On the one hand, (the tongue) is very religious, but, on the other, it can be most profane." If we cannot tame this unruly tongue of ours, is it destined to be a daily problem for us, always prone to speak evil? By God's grace, no. We are not left to our own devices. The Lord "set a guard" over our mouth; He will "keep watch over the door of my lips" (Psalms 141:3). He can tame the untamable. Lord, my mouth sometimes speaks words that don't honor You. Thank You that by Your Spirit my untamed tongue can be brought under divine subjection. Please guard my mouth today. As God declares Himself to those around us by His Word and through our lives, we can learn to rule our tongues, allow Christ to rule in our heart.
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