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PROGRAM D-8406
When times are tough, it’s easy to make some decisions based on fear instead of faith. So I want to give you some do’s and don’ts for when times are tough.
Do you know what turkeys do when they are frightened by a storm? They run into a corner and pile up on top of each other—such that some are suffocated by the pile up. That’s not a smart thing to do. It doesn’t solve the problem but exacerbates it!
Fear of the storms we are facing can cause us to act like a turkey—to run away or to commiserate with each other in our own version of a “pile-up.” In fact, we can talk ourselves into fear and inaction. What do you say to yourself when you’re facing tough times—tough financial times, tough health times, or whatever it may be?
David wrote, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). Do you think it is pleasing to the Lord when we speak words of fear and discouragement to ourselves? If Jesus were standing there beside you, would you let those negative words escape from your lips?
I want to challenge you—as you face the tough times of your life—to determine by God’s grace that you will not succumb to the temptation to voice those words of fear and doubt. We make our difficult situations so much worse by reinforcing them with discouraging words, even when those words are unspoken. In Proverbs we read that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and you can speak words of death to yourself. Again we read that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver (Proverbs 25:11).
As you face tough times, you can choose to either speak words of death or words of life. When you choose to speak words of life—encouraging words—it is a beautiful thing, like apples of gold in a silver bowl.
So, our first don’t for the tough times of life is this:
Don’t make matters worse by speaking words of death. Encourage yourself with fitly spoken words that encourage.