7 Truths of Marriage: Rest in Connection预览

Truth In Words

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord. - Proverbs 18:21-22 (NIV)

The church we attend includes a portion of time in the service when a pastor recites Proverbs 18:21. They explain that throughout the week we may have people speak negative words and curses over us. The pastor emphasizes the tongue’s power of life and death before offering prayers to reverse those curses and negativities directed against us. It’s a powerful remembrance that we do live in a time where harsh words flow globally and without accountability. In this age of anonymity via social media, we have no idea what is being said or to what depths of depravity.     

There are no coincidences within God’s Holy Word. The reality that verse twenty-two directly follows a warning against the types of words spoken is no accident. As significant as communication is, the actual words communicated between husband and wife are equally important. God rewards marriage because it is good and in a good, Christ-centered marriage, spouses are favored with the reward of a good marriage. The marriage is and of itself a good reward, but God extends His blessings to spouses who speak life over one another.

What we say dictates whether or not we may first find a spouse and secondly, what type of fruit that marriage will bear based on the type of language we use with each other. We realize that verse twenty-two is directed at the man, but the truth is, it’s spiritually interchangeable as God’s Words transcend gender as He directs His Words to both husband and wife. Finding either is a good thing with the potential of reward with the affirming of life-giving words.   

Now that you have found a good thing in your spouse, the type of fruit you will eat of is up to you thanks to the type of words you decide to speak to one another. Don’t talk down to, harshly about, or condescending against each other all week and then hope the pastor breaks the curses in a slice of a sermon. Choose your words carefully and lovingly and you both shall enjoy the sweetness of marriage’s fruit.

Truth Time:

Pray over and review the words you’ve spoken to your spouse over the last twenty-four hours. Were they powerfully, life-affirming words, or talk that tears down the spirit of the one most cherished?