Honey or Hurt?

Many years ago I went to a writer's convention at Moody Bible Institute. I learned a lot that week but there is an incident that sticks out in my mind. At one session I had shared that I wanted to write devotionals. One of the women in the class told me later she had a Bible verse to share with me. Every time she saw me during that week she would say, "I must give you that Bible verse before this week is over." Finally, as I was packing up the car to leave she came running up to me and handed  me a slip of paper. I opened it and read, "The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught." Isaiah 50:4

This is what I experience morning after morning. An idea will come to me, a Bible verse, and illustration, sometimes a problem I am struggling with and then through out the night I feel like I am being taught and when I wake up in the morning I share what I've been taught in the night by writing it as a devotional.

I experienced it again this morning. Yesterday I read about the healing properties of honey. I read how it was used in the past as an antibiotic and would be put on wounds to bring healing and keep out infections. Last night I spoke unkindly to my husband. How do these two things fit together? When I woke up this morning I was thinking,"Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body." Proverbs 16:24

In James 3 I read how my tongue can be a, "restless evil,full of deadly poison" and yet if my words are gracious they can have the healing properties of honey. What's makes the difference whether my words bring wounds or healing? Jesus said it was a matter of the heart that it's from the heart that the mouth speaks.

Lord Jesus I want my words to sustain the weary. I want my words to bring healing. I want this not only for those who read the words I write but for those who hear my words day by day. Lord Jesus create in me a pure heart.