Week 3 Day 2: The Power Of Words

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word…." Hebrews 1:3 CSB

We are God’s image bearers. That means like Jesus, we have the ability to express the nature of what we believe and sustain it with our words. We can choose to be an expression of God’s nature or an expression of flesh. We need to pay close attention to the thoughts in our heads because we will become who we listen to. Our thoughts come from parents, relatives, friends, teachers, even strangers. Any person who speaks within earshot can affect us. We must be careful how we assimilate those words. 

With every word spoken to us we have a choice to accept it as truth or as a lie. If we accept it as truth it moves to the front of our thoughts. If we accept it as a lie our brains will file it toward the back of our thoughts. When we think of it again, our brain either reinforces it as truth and brings it further to the front; or it will affirm it as a lie and eventually push the thought further in the back of our minds.

The things we agree with as truth always become stronger in our minds and the things we agree are lies eventually disappear from our thoughts. The problem is that we can be deceived by the different voices in our lives as to what is truth and what are lies. Every day we are inundated with voices from others and from our society. But those are only the most visible and obvious voices. There are hidden voices that actually flood every crevice of our minds and exert enormous influence on our thoughts. These thoughts come from God, Satan and especially us.

The failure of Adam to choose the right voice caused man to lose his way. We needed a Bridge to help us become the bridges we were created to be. Thousands of years after God knelt in the dust, His Son Jesus came to kneel in that very same dirt. With that dirt He healed the blind and freed the condemned. He showed us what living out the Word of God really looks like. 

For hundreds of years the religious elite thought they knew God. They waited for the Messiah to come and they expected Him to come, yet they completely missed Him. How could they miss Him? Because they allowed their thoughts to be hijacked. They wanted a Savior that looked and acted the way they wanted Him to look and act. They missed the fact that the whole Bible is the story of Jesus, it’s not a bunch of separate Bible stories.

This is why we must intentionally take care of our thoughts when we’re alone and watch our words closely when we’re with others. We must control our thoughts because thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character and character becomes destiny. Following the wrong thoughts will take us to the wrong and very empty destiny.

Who do you want to listen to? What are some steps you can take to make sure the voices you hear are telling the truth?

Meditate on Hebrews 1:3 today