Are you a fool? Do you need to add your two cents worth to every conversation?
Proverbs 17:27-28
“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”
Abraham Lincoln is credited with a quote that refers to this scripture. He said, “Better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
When we were created God gave each of us a power gift, our voice, and He also gave us, through His Word, an instruction manual on how powerful it is and how to use it properly. Many of us have never taken the time to read the instruction manual and because of our foolishness, have caused much hurt to ourselves and to others. Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Taming the tongue is something we cannot do on our own. It takes help from the Holy Spirit. There have been so many times I have failed to tame my tongue and wound up removing all doubt of my foolishness, or even worse, causing terrible harm to both myself, and even worse, to someone else. I have had to ask forgiveness and tried to repent. We are warned in James 3:8, “But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
But I finally learned that God never intended us to tame this powerful weapon alone. Psalm 141:3, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” I learned before I open my mouth, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to guard my tongue and yield to what He wants to come out of my mouth.
As I continue to read the instruction manual to this wonderful powerful gift God has given me, I have not only learned how it can be used for destruction, but more importantly, how God intended me to use it. Psalm 35:28, “Then my tongue shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long” and Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” These are only a couple of Scriptures that teach us all how to use our words for good instead of evil. It’s only with the help of the Holy Spirit that we can do this. We must be willing to stay in God’s Word to know what tools God has given us to keep our tongue tamed and then use our words to praise God, and uplift and be encouragement to others. We also need to learn when and how to keep our mouths shut, even at the risk of being thought of as a fool.
