The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives.
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost part.
Proverbs 18:7-8 NIV
Have you ever been tempted to indulge in gossip? Have you ever taken a bite? In all honesty, in my experience, gossip can prove to be quite tasty. Initially, though appealing, it can weigh you down. What seemed delectable eventually can compare to digesting unwanted calories, making one fat. Plump in bitterness, judgement, jealousy, and pride.
Gossip is defined in the Strong’s Concordance Hebrew reference number 5372, as to murmur, whisper, backbite, slander. “Are like choice morsels” (Hebrew 3859) to gulp, swallow greedily.
To gulp gossip appeals to our flesh; however, we need to watch what we eat.
Don’t be foolish!
Refrain from gossiping.
May we not grow fat with gossip! Instead, count our words.
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much.
Proverbs 20:19 NIV
May our words promote peace - producing unity - not division.
A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.
Proverbs 16:28 NIV
May we prove to be trustworthy.
A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.
Proverbs 11:13 NIV
Let us speak words for the building up of the body!
Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak]. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin]. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence].
Ephesians 4:29-31 AMP
What’s on your plate? Choose well! For it is said, “You are what you eat.”
Prayer
Father,
I confess that I have gulped down gossip, and entered in to it’s lure. Please forgive me, Lord, for the times I have indulged; especially, for the times when the whispers initiated with me.
I repent.
Please, clear my plate of the need to know - In the Name of Jesus - bring to an end to any generational pattern of gossiping, that my intake would no longer make me plump in bitterness, judgement, jealousy, and pride.
Cleanse my lips, Father, that I may speak life for the building up of the body!
Proving trustworthy! Serving others wholesome words! Cheering them on!
I release the healing balm of Jehovah over every wound I caused, and to the wounds I have encountered through the gossip of others. I step away from the wounding of these words, and step in to the Word of God. It is in His presence, at His table, I choose to fill my plate.
It is through Christ, I can speak life!
“You are what you eat.” Indeed!
Amen
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words. Proverbs 18:21 AMP
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