"Reach down from heaven; rescue me from deep water, and set me free from the grasp of foreigners whose mouths speak lies, whose right hands are deceptive.
Set me free and rescue me from the grasp of foreigners whose mouths speak lies, whose right hands are deceptive."
Psalms 144:7-8, 11
Words can hurt, especially when they come out of someone we love or someone we want to love. Actions definitely hurt, especially when they are done against or without us.
The power of words is mighty and can change the course of someone's attitude toward themselves or toward others. Sometimes the words that are hurting us come from within ourselves, we hurt ourselves with our thoughts! Does that mean that those are God's thoughts about us? Clearly we think a lot of ungodly thoughts all day, we see something and it brings up some sort of ungodly image, for me sometimes I lay down to sleep and I start to remember some of the scariest movie images I've ever seen because I don't want to! I scare myself, and that isn't God's doing.
So then where do these words come from? They are shaped and influenced by tons of things: other people, media, music, books, magazine, television and so forth.
What you do with you eyes, ears, hands and body have an impact on what will come back around to you. Monkey see, monkey do. If you keep seeing the people on the Internet and their fantastic lifestyles in some faraway country then you will begin to see that as some sort of goal or standard of your own. If you continue to look into fitness magazine or the food network then it's likely that those will become your standards and goals, regardless of if you reach them or not. They are influencing your ideals. Setting you up for the thoughts you will have later on. And thoughts, as we all know from research, are the seeds of action.
What is an ideal? It's something we desire because it looks good to us. Ideals are good to have, and in fact they help motivate us to do tons of good things. If an ideal is set, consciously or subconsciously, then it has power over our thoughts throughout the day.
What are your ideals and who did you hear them from? Your Heavenly Father who loves you or someone else, a stranger to the family of God? We are in this world and such exposures to the ideals and standards of others is practically inevitable. But we do not belong to this world as it is, we belong to the family of God for whom we await His arrival to restore all of creation back to what it was meant to be. (Romans 8:19-22) So while we are in this world, we are hearing and seeing and doing all kinds of things, and being heard, seen and involved in the actions of others. Our words stem from our ideals, and whatever we speak, see and do will have influence as it extends from our lives.
There are so many people in need of your words, your actions and your very lives to be the thoughts that later speak to them when they are all alone. Everyone is talking and doing something all day--even just one godly chit chat, one godly act of serving, one godly embrace or letter is enough to influence a person, including yourselves!
I need my brothers and sisters to speak the ideals of God for me. I need them, because late at night I start to hear the words influenced by foreigners who lie about my identity and my value. I need your words, and I need them everyday.
"But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception."
Hebrews 3:13
Jmegrey
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