Speak Life, Speak Death

Let's get really real for a second.

At some point in your life, someone's words made you die a little inside. Whether it was embarrassing, chilling, or just plain painful to hear, those words made some part of you die.

Now, think about a time when someone told you something, and immediately, the deadness inside of you became alive again. Suddenly, you felt like you were living again. It's hard to explain exactly how that feels, but it is literally like you were dead, and you didn't think you could live again, and suddenly you could feel yourself being revived from the dead.

Like the song says, "Words can build you up, words can bring us down, start a fire in our hearts or put it out." That's why it's important to be careful about what you say. The words you say can speak life into someone, or death.

So 'speak life' is an obvious thing you can take away from this post. Yeah. Don't say something so hurtful to someone that they'd decide to take their own life. You're not responsible for other people's choices, but you are very responsible for your own, and you have an influence over people whether you know it or not.

But here's something else you need to think about when you're tryna 'speak life' into someone: Don't be so caught up in tryna speak life that you speak life to the wrong things. There are something things we should speak death to as well. Death to sin, death to hate, death to insecurity, death to pride, death to depression, death to anxiety, death to unhealthy living.

Don't enable people to do things that you and they know will kill them in the end.

That said, don't kill them with your words, ne? Find a balance. Sometimes you need to cut things open in order to drain the poison, sometimes you need to give some anesthesia before you do it. And sometimes, yes, all that you need to do is wipe the scrape off, put some Neosporin on it and slap a band-aid on that thing. Once you get more in tune with God, which means actually taking the time to get to know Him and building that relationship with Him through prayer, reading your bible, and fasting, you start to get more in tune with people. You start to see the needs, the wounds, and if you listen closely, you'll understand what needs to take place for the healing process to begin/continue.

Humans are not the enemy. Even if they hurt you, even if they call themselves your enemies, they aren't the real enemy. There's something behind their actions, be it pain, stress, demonic forces, or whatever. That's why you gotta pray for them. Bless the people who curse you, because you know God's got your back. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," saith the Lord (end of Romans 12:19). If you've read the Old Testament, you know that God's wrath is scary to be on the receiving end of. And if you're close to God, you really don't want anyone to be on that receiving end, no matter how badly they hurt you. Yeah, they deserve it. So do you and I. Nobody's faultless. Everyone's sinned. So pray for 'em, do good to 'em, bless 'em, 'cause God loves them and died for them too.

Speak life to bring peace to someone. Speak life to show them that they're loved, and that they have a purpose and a destiny specifically made for them. Speak death to doubt and distrust. Speak life to faith. Speak death to racism and fear of the unknown. Speak life, and speak death, to the right things.

I'm working on this too, so pray that I learn how to do this too. And I'm praying for you guys too. :)

God bless you guys. I love ya. :) <3

--Sonya :)