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Devotional
Relationships are such an important aspect of our everyday lives as well as our Christian walk and it seems as if in these last days Satan has ear marked our relationships for the purpose of their destruction.
Everywhere you look you see the demise of relationships, friendships falling apart, marriages straining to point of breaking. It seems as though in this day and hour in which we live our relationships are riddled with division and strife and I believe the reason for this is because Satan knows that to destroy relationships is to weaken the family structure as well as to weaken an individual person thus resulting in a weakening of the corporate body of Christ.
There is strength in numbers both physically and spiritually. In the natural we know that the physical power of two people can lift more than one. The Word tells us in Leviticus 26:7, 8, "You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight…" (NKJV)
Often times Deuteronomy 32:30 is used as an example to show that with the Lord one can put a thousand to flight but two can put ten thousand to flight. Deuteronomy 32:30, "How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their rock had sold them, And the Lord had surrendered them." (NKJV)
There is strength in numbers, there is strength in unity and if Satan can divide us he knows we are in a weakened state and therefore we are less effective in our relationships, in our marriage and in our walk with Christ and for His cause.
I believe the number one cause of division and strife in a relationship is not money, as the world believes, but the spoken word. Harsh and hurtful words spoken in moments of anger cause tremendous hurt to the heart and to the soul. It causes gapping holes in the fences that surround and bind our relationships.
When hurtful words are spoken it seems so easy to strike back in anger, to hurt with words as we were hurt. But angry words can not mend broken fences and when broken fences go un-mended the structure or fences that bind our relationships and marriages grow weak and fall apart.
It seems that so many times when we are hurt by another we do not want to be the one who mends the broken fence. We reason within ourselves that we have the right to strike back in anger because we were attacked and we reason within ourselves that we are the injured one and we should not have to be the one to mend the broken fences. We feel the one who hurt us should be the one to do the mending. Yet the Word of the Lord tells us in Proverbs 15:1, "A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger." (WEB)
God says we are to give better than we have received. We are to answer a harsh word with a gentle tongue, with words of love spoken from the heart, for there is no recourse against words of love when spoken from the heart. Words of love turn harsh words back upon those who have spoken them.
When we strike back against those who have spoken harshly to us, when we strike back in anger the anger only escalates it adds fuel to the fire and causes even more damage to our already broken fences. When we respond harshly, to those who have hurt us, through harshly spoken words, in their mind it justifies their speaking to us in such a manner. But if we answer their harshness with a gentle tongue and with words of love spoken from the heart they have no recourse, no justification, no fuel to add to their fire and when a fire runs out of fuel it dies.
Yet when we speak with a gentle tongue, words of love spoken from our heart we begin to mend those broken fences.
We have got to come to the point in our Christian walk that we realize that in our relationships it is not so important who does the mending of broken fences but that the mending be done.
Proverbs 15:1 (MKJV)
A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 25:15 (MKJV)
In being slow to anger a ruler is won over, and a soft tongue breaks the bone.
Proverbs 18:21 (MKJV)
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it
shall eat the fruit of it.
Proverbs 12:18 (MKJV)
There are those who speak like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
Psalms 34:13 (MKJV)
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile
Psalm 19:14 (MKJV)
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 141:3 ( MKJV)
Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
Deborah Bahmer
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