January 26, 2024 - Proverbs‬ ‭26:20 & 22

“It takes fuel to have a fire— a fire dies down when you run out of fuel. So quarrels disappear when the gossip ends. Add fuel to the fire and the blaze goes on. So add an argumentative man to the mix, and you’ll keep strife alive. Gossip is so delicious, and how we love to swallow it! For slander is easily absorbed into our innermost being.” Proverbs 26:20 & 22 TPT

Lord, help us guard our tongues. Forgive us for gossip, slander, and negative talk. Please increase the guard on our tongues and the conviction as we start to say something not of you. Help us be people who speak life and don’t focus on the negative. We don’t want to fuel a fire and keep it going. Help us be part of the solution and not the fuel. Show us how to guard each other with this. Even when gossip is so delicious and tastes so good, and when slander is the thing that justifies us and makes us feel better, help us not to partake in it. Help us to have the strength to shut it down among each other in a loving way. Show us how to use our words to grow the kingdom and put your plans into action, and never to tear it down.

Lord, help us to be people who are always walking in your ways. People who are always pursuing you and growing in you. Never let us be foolish in any of our actions. Open our eyes to it and help us grow in wisdom in those areas. Help us watch our tongues in everything we say. Let us not get drawn into the sweet taste of gossip and slander, but let those things turn sour in our mouths. Let the words that come out of us always bring your life to a situation and never make it worse. Give us your wisdom to always do these things effectively. Thank you, Lord, for how you walk with us and help us in all these things. You don’t leave us alone to figure it all out on our own. You are such an amazing God. We love you always!

In Jesus name, amen.