Hebrews 13:15 ‘By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.’

DAILY READING; 1 Thessalonians 4; Isaiah 20-22; Psalm 115

On February 3, 1959, shockwaves went through the music world over the tragic news of a fatal crash that killed a famous rock star, Buddy Holly and two other popular musicians, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.
These three singers had been on a music tour, which had a hectic schedule of 24 concerts in the Midwest over a three-week period.
Buddy Holly had brought along his friend, 19-years-old Waylon Jennings, to play in his band during the road tour.
They had begun travelling with a bus, but it turned out to be a bad experience as the bus developed faults on the freezing road.
Eventually, Buddy Holly decided to charter a private plane to take the three major musicians to their next gig in Minnesota, while the rest of the crew continued in the bus.
After these three main musicians had boarded the small plane, the two other remaining seats were taken by Waylon Jennings and another member of Buddy Holly’s band.
However, another musician who was feeling ill convinced Waylon Jennings to let him have his seat on the plane. Jennings then came down to join the other crew members in the bus.
As Jennings was leaving, Buddy Holly playfully told him “I hope you freeze on the bus!”
Jennings then replied ‘Yeah, well I hope your old plane crashes,’.
This casual remark would haunt Jennings for many years to come because only a short while after the flight began, the plane ran into some trouble and actually crashed killing everyone on board.
For the rest of his life, Waylon Jennings regretted ever telling Buddy Holly, he hoped their plane would crash.
For many years, he lived under this burden of guilt believing that somehow his words had indeed caused the plane crash. This caused him to abandon his musical career. It took some years before he eventually overcame his grief and trauma and returned to music..He succeeded to become an acclaimed country musician of the 1970s, yet he always regretted those careless words he spoke on that fateful day..

We must be careful with the words we speak, because words are powerful.
Many times people speak words carelessly, without knowing the possible impact.
However, as believers we must bear in mind that Jesus said that on the day of judgment we will all give account for every careless word spoken.[ Mathew 12:36].
This should make us really sober about making careless utterances.
Proverbs 18:21 teaches us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Words are seeds, once spoken, it is only a matter of time before they bear fruits. And whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.
One of the success secrets of the Jewish nation is the words of blessing Jewish parents have spoken over their children every Sabbath day for many generations.
These words are producing the fruit of an amazing nation that today marvels the world in every field of endeavor.
Statistics say the average person speaks 11,000,000 words a year. Imagine how many words that would total in a lifetime and the magnitude and impact of these many words, if continually spoken positively or negatively.
We must therefore choose our words carefully. King David, prayed in Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord”

Let us also pray for the grace to carefully guard our words.
No matter, the temptation let us avoid negative or careless speaking. Rather, let us speak only that which is in agreement with the Scriptures.
Meditating upon the Word of God will help us speak right words, because it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Certainly the more we meditate on God’s Word, the more there will be an overflow of graceful words from our mouths.

Indeed our mouths are created to bless the Lord at all times, His praise is to continually be on our lips.
We are to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name. [Hebrew 13:15].
When we sow the seed of God’s Word in our hearts, the fruit of our lips will be praise and praise always produces the harvest of blessings in our lives.
Therefore rather, than engage in idle or negative speaking, let our words be used to bless men and continually glorify God.
Certainly when our praises go up, our blessings will come down.

PRAYER: Lord, please help me to always praise You with my lips and allow my words to be a blessing to people around me. Please help me to refrain from idle and negative speaking, but rather let the continual flow of your praise be on my lips always in Jesus Name.

QUOTE;
Your heart needs to be filled with The Word of God to the point of overflow. – WORDBITE 222