1 Peter 3:10
For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit…”
Good days are awesome; days when everything goes well, or you just feel good, days as if Heaven has come to earth… We all love and desire good days. God wants us to have these days and to love life! He doesn’t deny that there will be times of trouble and some evil days, He warns us they come; but He also says there are ways we can increase the number of good days we have in our lives1.
Mark 11:12-14
Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, [Jesus] was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.
Mark 11:20-21
Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to [Jesus], “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”
Romans 10:6
But the righteousness of faith speaks…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
When Jesus saw that the fig tree didn’t have any fruit on it, He didn’t say to it, “Tree, I curse you…” And He also didn’t just think the thoughts in His heart, cursing it inside Himself and it withered away – He spoke negatively to it. His spoken words had a seen effect.
The world did not come into existence by God thinking about it, He spoke and then He saw the result. God made us in His image, so when we speak we also will see results.
Genesis 1:3, 6, 7, 9 – 12, 26, 31
Then God said, “Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good…”
Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters…”, and it was so.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens gather into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so…and God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass…”, and God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
Before Jesus came to save us, God had been relating to man mainly through law – do’s and don’ts2. But after Jesus came, ‘doing’ was done away with and ‘speaking’ in faith came. God wanted us to stop worrying about doing and simply speak – speak Jesus, speak our righteousness of God in Christ to see blessings come to our lives3. God gives us salvation through the means of our confession of Christ with our mouth4.
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Matthew 6:31 (KJV)
Therefore take no thought, saying, “What shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink…?”
In saying negative words to the fig tree, Jesus was demonstrating the power of speaking things out. The means for us to see good days is to not focus on making our thoughts free from any evil, but that our speech, be free from speaking negatively. Death and life are not in the power of our thoughts, but in the power of our tongues. Having a bad thought about someone, but at the same time not speaking that thought out can therefore bring life to our day. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us that the power over all our worries comes not by avoiding worrisome thoughts, but by not taking those thoughts and then speak them out.
Therefore how we speak about situations, ourselves and others is powerful. Speaking blessing – positive words, about a negative situation can bring life to it. And lessening negative words or speaking blessing about someone can bring life to our hearts where there may have been previous ‘death’ or negativity inside us towards the person. This can be really challenging sometimes and if we ever fail to stop ourselves from speaking badly against someone or have bad thoughts or actions, God reminds us we have been washed completely clean by Jesus’ blood at the Cross, we stand righteous before Him5. No wrong words spoken can undo our salvation, Jesus has given us everlasting righteousness; God just wants to see us to enjoy life and encourages us that we can see good days by refraining from speaking negatively6…
2 Corinthians 12:9
…”My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness”
And even if we have no strength to speak blessings or refrain from negative words, God’s got it covered. We need Jesus for everything, even to ‘speak good’ over our lives7. He will keep on providing us with the grace to do what we cannot do, never condemning us for continually asking Him for help8. We hope you have many, many good days!
In Jesus name, Amen.
References:
- Psalm 9:9, Ephesians 6:13
- Romans 10:5
- Philippians 3:9, Romans 4:13, Galatians 3:13-14
- Romans 10:4-10
- John 13:10, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 1:5
- Daniel 9:24
- John 15:5
- James 1:5