Tongue-tied

"Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary in forbearing, and I could not stay." Jeremiah 20:9

Good morning, dear friends,

Photo: pezibear pixabay

I'm sure that I'm not alone, when I say that I have a slow brain and a fast mouth.

Too often, I blurt out the things that I shouldn't say, because my mouth forgets that the brain (and the Holy Spirit) are in charge.  My virus checker goes offline, and before I can stop myself, there it is:  my ugly selfishness or lack of self-control is visible for all to see.

(My closest friends and I have a standing joke:  "That sounded better in your head, didn't it?" Yup.)

This is usually true, in all areas of my life, but one:  Not speaking God's truth, when I am prompted to do so.

It happens like this:  an innocent conversation, spoken between me and another, many times with a stranger, or a first time conversation, and something is mentioned that allows me to think of a spiritual truth that I could casually slip into the discussion.  The problem is, by the time I've finally figured out how and what I should say, the conversation has changed directions.  I hesitated too long, and the moment is lost.  To bring the conversation back around to that moment would many times be awkward, or impossible.

I missed my chance, and who knows when that moment will come again?

How much I need to work on allowing God to use my tongue for Him.

This morning I was reading again in Jeremiah, and I arrived at Jeremiah 20, which relates one of Jeremiah's first imprisonments for speaking God's Word.  What is sad to me in this passage is that Jeremiah's mistreatments come 1. while he was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and 2. he was imprisoned at the hands of someone who claimed to be God's servant as well.  Pashur was supposedly a priest of God, but who "prophesied lies." (Jeremiah 20:6)

In the middle of this passage, after Jeremiah's time in the stocks and being publically derided for a day, Jeremiah pours his heart out to the Lord.  It was definitely a "down moment" in Jeremiah's ministry.  I don't think it would be a stretch to say that Jeremiah was discouraged right then.  The first two verses of this prayer to God sound very familiar to me:

"O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily."

Jeremiah was essentially saying to the Lord, that he was being mistreated because of his obedience to God.

(Just a note:  the word "deceived" in the first part of this passage does not mean tricked or misled, but apparently means "to persuade or be pursuaded."  Jeremiah was not accusing God of mistreating him, but instead Jeremiah was reminding God that he had been led to speak these words from God Himself.)

Thankfully, that was not his "final word" to the Lord.

Jeremiah could have stopped sharing God's message, and maybe he felt like doing it.  Instead, he found that he could not:

"Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary in forbearing, and I could not stay." (Jeremiah 20:9)

The message of God was burning in his heart, and Jeremiah could not in all good conscience ignore the message.

This response from Jeremiah brought up a similar question in my heart:

Does God's Word burn inside me, so that even if I think others might scorn, despise or mock God's Word, is that enough to keep me from sharing it?

What is really at stake here?  Eternity, people's souls, a life free from condemnation and judgment on the one side, and on the other, my pride.

Obviously, I know which side should motivate my mouth to speak.

May God help me to remember His Word today.  May it burn in my heart, so that not to speak about His wonderful works, is more difficult for me than to keep silent.  After all, when I think of all the wonderous changes that God has brought about in my life, and in the lives of others, shouldn't that give me something to talk about?

May the Lord untie my tongue today, and may I speak freely for Him.