Turning Your Life Around
So many are not happy with the way their lives are going. They feel they are at a dead-end. It is hard for them to get excited about the future, so they just trudge on. They fantasize about a different life and hope one day that a “fairy god-mother” will come along and wave her wand to make everything different. But the days just keep passing by with no change in sight and despair sets in. Maybe you have found yourself in his kind of dilemma and are looking for a way out. Well, the Bible shows you how to turn your life around.
In the book of James, the tongue is compared to the rudder of a ship. It is a small part of the vessel, yet controls its direction. In the time of the writing of the Bible, ships had sails and were driven by the wind. The rudder did not give the ship its forward motion, but it did direct its course. The wind is a type of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills the sails of your life, giving you the strength and ability to realize what comes out of your mouth.
Let me show you how this works. When a person is lost in his sin and far away from God, his life is in a downward direction. He is on a collision course with hell itself. To turn his life around he must first hear the Good News of Salvation. The Holy Spirit opens the eyes of his understanding and he believes in his heart the truth of the Gospel. But is not enough just to believe, one must also confess. As a person confesses what he believes, the result is salvation and a changing of direction. In Romans 10, verses 9 and10, it says: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Just as faith speaks, fear also speaks. Job said: “What I feared came upon me.” (Job 3.25) The mouth speaks what the heart believes and that is the life you will enjoy, or not. You can say, “I am just a failure. I won’t amount to anything.” Or, you can come into agreement with the Word of God and confess: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4.13) What do you want: Life or death, curse or blessing? The disciples were amazed that the fig tree withered after Jesus had cursed it. Jesus responded by saying that if they would have faith in God, whatever they say would come to pass. (Mark 11.22-24) Proverbs 18.21 says: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
If you want to change your life, you must change your talk and to change you talk you must change what goes into your heart. The principle is easy to understand: Garbage in, garbage out, blessing in, blessing out. You will never have more than you believe and confess. With the tongue you can curse and with the tongue you can bless. So just remember, what you speak will be your life. My prayer for you is that the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart would be acceptable to the Lord and that you would experience the good and perfect will of God in your life.
Scriptures to meditate on:
James 3.1-12; Romans 10.8-10, 17; 12.1-2; Hebrews 11.1-6; Psalms 19.14