Talking with your mouth full is disgusting, no doubt about it. Those little chewed up morsels end up in places they shouldn’t, causing innocent bystanders to duck for cover or wipe some partially digested nugget from their chin. Not pretty.
As parents, we coach our children to chew and swallow before speaking. This is great advice! What would happen if we applied that same practice to our everyday Christian life? Simply digesting the word of God like it was our necessary daily food—the scriptures call this meditation—before speaking the Word of God into our situation.
Chew on the Word
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8 emphasis added).
When we keep the promises of God before us—allow them to consume our thoughts, color our words, and influence our decisions—something glorious happens: “For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
World Overcoming Faith
The good news is that our success, happiness, prosperity and health are not decided upon by any outside force, principality or power, but the very words that God spoke. God has already made up His mind about us and destined us for greatness. He calls us blessed, highly favored, prosperous, chosen, set apart and precious. World overcoming faith is on the inside of us in the person of Jesus!
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…” (Revelation 12:11).
In plain English: We overcome by what Jesus did for us on the cross and by what we are prepared to say about it!
I want to encourage you today to find out what the Lord says about your situation and agree with that. This means purposefully agreeing with God’s promises and speaking out those rather than confirming every negative thing around us. This is the first step in seeing the promises of God come to pass in our lives.
I Can Do All Things Through Christ
When our daughter was five years old, we moved to Colorado from the UK. It was a big adjustment in lots of ways and the change in altitude was no exception!
Shortly after arriving in the mountains we took a family hike to spy out the land. We were at 9,500 feet and, coming from sea level, the lack of oxygen made climbing hills even more challenging. Yet on we trekked until the children spotted a grassy knoll that was begging to be summited. As the children raced ahead, Hannah lagged behind as her little legs struggled to keep up. Finally, we all reached the top—us adults just barely.
I was sure that we would have to carry Hannah up that thing, but she did it all by herself. All the way up she was muttering something that I couldn’t quite understand until she shouted it from the top as loud as she could: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13)
That day, she learned how speaking the Word enabled her to overcome. What worked for Hannah will work for us too!
Say it, don’t spray it!
Related Resource
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