SPEAK IT!

"See What You Say"

In Proverbs 18:21, King Solomon; the wisest man to ever live, writes "...death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." And, lately I have been meditating and thinking on how powerful are words actually are, and how wasteful we are with our own words.  We seem to give more credence and attention to the negative circumstances and situations in our life by the volume of words that we attribute to them. The time we spend speaking negatively over our own lives far outweighs those moments of optimism and positivity we use to sporadically offset the overwhelming negativity. But, this is a reality for most of us, especially those of us who are walking with God and know that He is guiding and directing our lives.  It would seem a bit oxymoronic for us as Christians to allow our natural propensity for pessimism and negativity to overshadow our faith in God. And, yet this is what typically happens to each and every one us who are striving to "walk by faith and not by sight." But, it is definitely a challenge. We are constantly being challenged by what we see, problems, troubles, tragedy, etc and what we see causes us to loose faith in the God that we don't see. And, sometimes the problems are so debilitating and severe that we find ourselves degenerating into a bout of negativity that causes you to forget who you are. You start thinking negative, and then you start speaking negative and then you begin operating in an atmosphere of negativity that your words have created. The irony behind this is that we have misappropriated the power given to us through our words and instead  of speaking positivity in our lives we have littered our own lives with negativity. This is the equivalent of verbal suicide.

Why is this the case? Why does it seem much easier to speak negatively than it is to speak positively? I believe it all goes back to sin. It is in our nature. And, whatever is in us will eventually come out of us. We; as Christians, even still struggle with our flesh. Paul speaks very candidly about his own flesh and says that there is a war in my members. "The good that I would do, evil is always present." It so much easier; so much more convenient to speak negatively than to speak positively. It seems so much easier to join with the chorus of pessimists and say, "Nobody knows the trouble I see!" The fact of the matter is that we always want to over exaggerate the negatives in our lives, as a way of distinguishing our trouble from everyone else. So, it is not enough that we are experiencing problems in our life, but we must distinguish our trouble from everyone else so that we can garner greater sympathy for what we're going through than everyone else. But, look at the effects of what we are doing; look at the damage that is being done to our mentality as well as our spirituality. And, can you imagine if you took a minute to reverse that campaign for pessimism into a movement for optimism, what kind of effect that would have on your mentality and spirituality.

If we just understood that the power of that scripture resides within us, we would be more victorious in life's trials and tribulations that we usually are. If we actually redirected our negatives energies towards positive pursuits, we would be far more productive and successful than we actually dreamed we could be. The irony behind this scripture is that the power works both ways, and what we typically use this power for is to tear ourselves and others down, and we can see the disastrous effects of this practice. And, seeing this power demonstrated only causes us to use more it, which continues this destructive course.  But, using this same power to speak positivity, and optimism over our lives and others is a far more beneficial and productive way to conduct ourselves. The question becomes, why does it seem so much easier to speak negative than it is to speak positive? The answer is actually quite simple, it is easier to be negative than to be positive, because there is no reward that comes with it.  Negativity is synonymous with emptiness, and emptiness is equivalent to nothing-ness. And, nothing from nothing leaves nothing. But, the reward is much greater when you choose to speak positive instead of spewing negativity. The reward is greater, because success, prosperity, and optimism, are just a few of the residual effects that come with living a life filled with positive vibes.

Kenneth Brown, Life Coach

Kenneth Brown; motivational speaker, life coach and founder of Ken Brown International coined a phrase that I absolutely love "L.I.F.E," "Living In Freedom Everyday." This is a very simple but very powerful affirmation that we should apply to our lives. And, the first way to do it is to begin speaking positive thoughts and words into our spirits. We cannot afford another negative thought. The cost of negativity is to high, because it now becomes an "opportunity cost" which means the cost of doing what you're doing compared to what you could be doing. And, if the reward of being positive is much greater than being negative, the path of negativity then becomes the price you pay for choosing to do the wrong thing.

So, let's start speaking life today. Speak life into the most important person in your life; You!  Speak life into your careers, your hopes and your dreams. Make the investment today to speak life into yourself, believe me it''ll be worth every penny.


Be Blessed!

Pastor Nimmons
www.michaelnimmons.com