Psalm 141:3-4 “Post a guard at my mouth, God, set a watch at the door of my lips. Don’t let me so much as dream of evil or thoughtlessly fall into bad company. And these people who only do wrong- don’t let me lure me with their sweet talk! May the Just One set me straight, may the Kind One correct me, Don’t let sin anoint my head. I’m praying hard against their evil ways!” Today's episode is about how great it would be if we could have God guard our mouths so we don't say things we regret. It also talks about not thoughtlessly falling into bad company. Pray for God to bring good friends into your lives and the lives of your children too! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God, Please Help Me Watch What I Say!
Psalm 141:3-4 “Post a guard at my mouth, God, set a watch at the door of my lips. Don’t let me so much as dream of evil or thoughtlessly fall into bad company. And these people who only do wrong- don’t let me lure me with their sweet talk! May the Just One set me straight, may the Kind One correct me, Don’t let sin anoint my head. I’m praying hard against their evil ways!”
I was sold at the first line of this verse. Post a guard at my mouth, yes please. How many times have you wished you could take back something you said? How many times have you said something that felt really good in the moment and then you instantly regretted saying it? I was just thinking of a Meg Ryan movie called “You’ve God Mail.” Meg Ryan’s character in the movie said she never has a zinger when she needs one. She was saying that she wished, just once, she could say exactly what she wanted to say when she wanted to say it. Then a few days later she was talking to someone she didn’t like and she told him exactly what she thought of him. Instead of feeling better like she imagined she would, she felt awful that she had been mean to him. Has this happened to you before? I am pretty sure it has happened to all of us. We imagine how great it would be tell someone what we think of them and then it isn’t.
I remember being in 8th grade and we had a new kid in class. I was picked on when I was in school. People made fun of me because they said I smelled and because I didn’t have the nicest clothes. I remember this new kid was just trying to fit in with the cool kids and he said something unkind, I don’t remember what but it was something about me being smelly, or something like that. I instantly started to cry. If you know me at all, you know it is not hard to get me to cry. I cry when I am happy, when I am sad, when I hear a moving story about someone else, when someone else is sad. Anyway, I started to cry and he instantly knew what he had said was unkind and hurt my feelings. He felt so bad. He was never unkind like that to me again.
I can remember saying plenty of things over the years that I regret. When we are feeling frustrated, angry, tired and so many other emotions, we can say things we don’t mean. Or maybe we do mean them but if we weren’t so tired, angry, etc. we might have had the power to not say them to the person. People always say sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This is an awful saying. Words can cut deeper than any knife and the wounds from unkind words can take a lot longer to heal than the wounds from a knife. I have lost friendships over misspoken words. I have struggled in my marriage over the years because of a lack of communication but also some very unkind words spoken. Why do we struggle so much with our words? I say we because I know I am not the only one listening to this that has struggled with this. I am sure every single person listening to this episode has said something they regret at one time or another. If only God would put a guard on our mouths. This is a prayer I pray often. I would love it if I could only speak love to those around me and those I meet. Can you imagine how much of a better place the world would be to live in if we all had a guard over our mouths?
The next part of this verse says, “Don’t let me so much as dream of evil or thoughtlessly fall into bad company. This line is great too! Yes please Lord, don’t let me even dream of evil or thoughtlessly fall into bad company. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever thoughtlessly fallen into bad company? You thought you had just made a good new friend and then you realize they aren’t that good of a friend? Mostly we think about our kids when we think of thoughtlessly falling into bad company, but adults can do it to. You might become friends with your neighbor and then you realize when you hang out with them, you drink to much, or you gossip. You might start hanging out with someone from work and then realize they spend their off time dabbling in fortune telling and tarot cards. You didn’t enter this friendship wanting to be around these things, or do these things, but you kinda fell into it.
It is important to pray for God to protect us from falling into bad company. It is great if we pray this protection over our children too. Dear Lord, please protect our children from falling into bad company as well. The earlier we can start praying that our children are surrounded by good friends, the better off they will be. I know as parents we wish we could choose our kids friends. However, who better to choose them than our heavenly Father? If you are hearing this idea for the first time, the idea we can pray for God to put good role models and good friends in our kids path then you might be feeling discouraged. I know I was a little when I first heard it. I was discouraged because my kids were not little anymore. They were in high school, but not little kids. I thought it was too late. If you feel this way, hear me now, It is never too late! Even if your children are grown, it is not too late for you to pray that God gives them positive role models. It is not too late to pray that God surrounds them with good friends, good people. With God, too late is not a thing. He is the creator of time and He certainly doesn’t let it get in His way of doing miracles and saving our children.
The next part of this verse says, “And these people who only do wrong- don’t let me lure me with their sweet talk!” Have you noticed that sin tends to be more attractive at times? This is just us looking through a worldly filter. The world tells us sugar is better than salad. The world tells us we don’t have to keep our wedding vows, it would be more fun to fill our desires with whoever we want. The world tells us we don’t have to be kind and loving, the world is a hard place and we just have to look out for ourselves because no one else will. When we were on the road today my sister saw a random bible verse on a car. It didn’t have the words, just the book, chapter and verse. It was Romans 6:23, which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I didn’t know why we saw this verse as I had already picked this scripture for today’s episode. Now I know why. Yes, sin looks more attractive if we look at it through a worldly filter. However, It says right here in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Looking at it from a Godly point of view, which looks more attractive, “Death, or eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord?” When we look at it this way, it’s not even close. Who would choose death over eternal life in Jesus?
The last part of the verse says, “May the Just One set me straight, may the Kind One correct me, Don’t let sin anoint my head. I’m praying hard against their evil ways!” This is right out of scripture and it makes such a great prayer. I will end with this prayer today!
Dear Heavenly Father please bless those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are the Just One, please set us straight. You are the Kind one, correct us. Lord, do not let sin anoint my head. I pray to you right now to protect me against their evil ways. You are amazing Lord and we love you! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so grateful for each and every one of you listening to this episode today. I am grateful for your support and your dedication. I can’t wait to spend time with you again Monday. If I am not here on Monday its because I am on retreat and either didn’t have wifi or life happened and I couldn’t get it posted. Don’t worry, I am doing great and will be back as soon as I can. Have a blessed weekend!