WORDS THAT SUSTAIN
21st Feb 2024
Isaiah 50:4 says, “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”
Our lives are surrounded by words, they mould us and shape us. Negative words damage us and can be like a curse over our lives. Words that affirm, comfort and encourage, strengthen us and bring peace and focus. So how are we using our words?
Jesus said to his disciples in John 6:63, “The words that I have spoken are spirit and they are life.” It so happens that the words He had just spoken had disturbed many of His hearers, and some had walked away. Peter when asked whether he would join them replied, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
One of the reasons for maintaining a regular habit of reading the Bible, is that His word will effect your life on a daily basis. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of your word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Earlier in the psalm, in verse 11 it says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Does that mean that our words are just soft and sentimental? Not at all, Paul said, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6)
There are many times when we don’t know what words to speak into the situation that we find ourselves in, this is when we need to train our ear to listen for the word from heaven. I have been praying into a very challenging situation, feeling inadequate and not knowing what to pray. As I listened, the Lord led me to Psalm 32:6-7, "Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
So whatever you are praying about, and in every personal encounter with those around, you have been given “an instructed tongue that knows the word to sustain the weary.” Hear the word, speak the word, change the atmosphere around you, and transform someone’s life.
by Charles Sibthorpe