WORDS HAVE A LOT OF POWER
Isaiah 37:6 (ESV) Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard …
Words come and words go, and to say they have no effect on us is simply not true. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me," is a phrase uttered in childhood in a futile attempt to cope with the world of disrespect and verbal abuse in which we are forced to live, deceptively giving confidence that we are unscathed. Truth is: we are not unscathed! Words hurt! They can hurt intensely, wounding us in deep places. Words break us! They can stay with us for decades, haunting us, causing us to adjust our behavior in order to compensate for the devastating affect they have on us emotionally; and those adjustments are of such a nature that they can lay waste to our relationships, some of which we hold dear. “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness,” says James (Jms 3:6). Words have the ability steal confidence, dash hope, and cause us to retreat into an isolation chamber of defeat and failure. They can cause unreasonable fear, resulting in our ravenous attempts to control everything and everyone around us. And this was a fear that Hezekiah felt when the Assyrian king sent young messengers to relay his threatening words; threats that he had delivered on many times before. Hezekiah was terrified, not because the attack was upon him, but because it was threatened to come upon him. In other words, he was terrified because of words. But God had some words in reply, “Do no be afraid because of the words you have heard.” This is simple, but powerful. Why? Because of the One speaking the words. The words God speaks are infinitesimally more powerful than the words of some Assyrian king. This is how we get over the devastation words have brought in our lives; we replace them with better words, words from a better source, words from a more powerful source – God’s words. We must discover the words spoken over us that are threatening, intimidating, terrifying, and untrue, and in their stead, search out God’s words that bring life, hope, peace, and are always true. There is no other path to a settled soul, for God is the One with the words we need, and these words are the words of life.
