God created the world with words—and to a degree, your own personal world is affected by the words that you speak.
Without a doubt, more lives have been destroyed by an unbridled tongue than by anything else. An unbridled tongue is a sure sign of an unbridled life. Maturity is measured to a large degree by a person’s ability to speak the right kind of words.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, would have had the unique opportunity to observe Jesus in all kinds of situations growing up. On many occasions, he would have observed Jesus’ speech. He saw that Jesus’ tongue was always under control—and that his life was under control as well.
Notice what he writes in James 3:3–5…
Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
In 1967, I remember standing on a pier in Long Beach Harbor in California. As I looked out into the distance, I saw the famous ship, the Queen Mary, sailing in. She was being retired from thirty-one years of service and would dock at Long Beach, where she remains today.
I had the chance later on to tour the Queen Mary, and I saw the wheelhouse of that massive ship. It’s such a small wheel—and with just one hand, the pilot could literally change the course of that ship.
In the James passage above, the word “driven” is the same word used in the Gospels when a demon would drive a demoniac into the wilderness. This is a picture of someone whose life is being driven by fierce demonic forces into the rocks of poverty, illness, divorce, despair, addiction, depression, and defeat.
If you want to see things turn for the better in your life—from chaos to harmony, from despair to hope, from sickness to health, from anxiety to peace—you have to change how you speak.
Maybe today, your boat is being blown by the winds of immorality onto the rocks of sin. Turn the rudder. Perhaps your marriage is being blown by the winds of selfishness and strife onto the rocks of divorce. Turn the rudder. Or maybe you’re being driven by demonic winds of worry and anxiety onto the rocks of complete mental and physical breakdown. Turn the rudder.
If you want the ship to turn, you have to start working the rudder—your tongue.
You can’t wait until things get better to start talking differently. Imagine a ship’s captain whose boat is being driven by the winds into the rocks. Everyone aboard is yelling, “Turn the wheel! Turn the wheel!” to which he replies, “I’ll turn the wheel once the ship turns.”
Would that make any sense? Not at all. That ship would be done for.
If you turn the rudder, the ship will turn. Change what you’re saying, and your life will turn. Find a promise. Fill your heart with it, treasure it up, and then let your lips agree with it. Speak in alignment with what God has said, and your life will change.
I am not saying you have to do it on your own. You need supernatural help to control your tongue. The great news is that God will help you—and you will find that inspiration from heaven above.
