The Need for a Good Word

Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.

Proverbs 12:25

The last couple of weeks have had me researching Scriptures on the tongue and what comes out of the mouth.  I’ve spent a considerable amount of time examining my own heart, since “out of the heart, the mouth speaks.”  I’ve not liked what I’ve seen in there, and recognize that my heart needs frequent cleansing and refilling.  I have also become aware that the real cure for all of this is standing in the shadow of the cross.  When I do, I remain humble, and that is a very safe position for keeping my heart under control, and subsequently my tongue. 

However, through this process, I ran across the above verse.  It, too, has been a source of conviction, but also one of encouragement for me.  For the last few years, anxiety has been a curse I have lived with (just saying this causes no small amount of anxiety in me; after all, as a Christian, aren’t I supposed to have “it all together?”).  There’s no rhyme or reason to when it will strike.  It’ll rear it’s ugly head at the most inopportune moments.  When the Spirit of God says that anxiety weighs the heart down, I get it.  I know what that feels like.  There are no more words that need to be said.  “Weighed down” covers the sensation just fine. 

I don’t like anxiety.  I’d like to “fix it.”  I’ve often felt like the Apostle Paul who prayed for his thorn in the flesh to go away.  Three times he prayed (I, on the other hand, have lost count) and the Lord said to him, “Paul, this is a prayer I won’t answer as you might like.  I want MY GRACE to be sufficient.  I want MY STRENGTH to govern YOUR WEAKNESS.”  Anxiety has become my thorn.  I’ve seen God’s strength cover me.  I’ve seen His grace be more than sufficient.  I’ve walked in victory in spite of it.  Yet, to be perfectly honest, I dislike it; and, I have often wondered about a cure.  Believe me, I know forwards and backwards what Philippians 4 says.  I understand Jesus’ command to not be anxious regarding tomorrow.  I can apply those Scriptures, and I can get a temporary “fix.”  Sometimes that “fix” lasts for days, and maybe even weeks.  Here’s another one:  a good word. 

So, what’s a good word?  Any advice, counsel, message, utterance or saying that is “cheerful, fine, gracious, joyful, kind, loving, pleasant, agreeable, excellent, valuable, understanding, or beneficial” (taken from Spiros Zodhaiates, Key Word Study Bible – New American Standard).  In Isaiah, the prophet says this:

The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word (50:4).

Here’s where the conviction hit:  How often do I speak a good word to others?  How many, like me, may be in need, yet go about life as if everything is “fine, just fine?”  Perhaps the Lord has allowed this condition as a reminder to me that not only to I need to guard what comes out, I need to be intentional about what does, and that must be a GOOD WORD!  A good word that sustains the weary, and makes glad an anxious heart.

At the same time, I’m encouraged.  Encouraged that my God will do as He has promised further on in that Isaiah passage:

He (God) awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to listen…(v.4)

…and when I do, he never fails to give me a good word.  Not many folks speak “good words” these days.  Not many of us leave one another with speech that brings hope and encouragement.  Ah, but the Lord never, never fails.  His mercies are new EVERY DAY!  How I need his good words!