Daily Worship, Spirit and Word Sep. 2, 2024
Are you religious? Or is ‘religious’ a bad word to you? Apparently, The Bible defines good and pure religion.
“If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:26–27, NKJV)
If our religion does not change the way we speak, it is useless. In fact, we find that we are only deceiving ourselves if what we say we believe does not change our words and deeds. We are commanded by Apostle James to, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”
How does one put a bridle on his tongue? He refuses to speak out things that are not aligned with God’s word. Some people call it ‘disingenuous’ or ‘inauthentic’ to not say what we feel or think. Is it inauthentic to lift weights that you don’t want to lift in order to get stronger? Of course not. We train ourselves by applying pressure to ourselves. This pressure which we apply to ourselves brings growth. We train ourselves to get stronger. We train our lips to speak the truth in love in order to grow up in Christ. We train our tongue to be silent unless we are speaking in faith.
Our words carry authority and power to affect our own lives and the lives of others. This is why we study God’s word. We want to let God put His words in our mouths. ““Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord.. (Isaiah 51:1a, NKJV) “And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth…” (Isaiah 51:16, NKJV) This word spoken to Israel tells us that when we listen to God and follow after righteousness, The LORD puts His words in our mouth and covers us with His Spirit, and then plants the heavens and establishes the foundations with The Words He puts in our mouth. Saying what God has said is good religion.