Watch What You Keep Saying About Yourself

I am so unlucky. Nothing ever works out for me. You have said something in that family this week and thought nothing of it.

Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Both directions are available in the same mouth, usually within the same hour.

James takes it further. James 3:2 says a man who "offend not in word" is "able also to bridle the whole body," and then James 3:5 says, "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" A spark, and then a whole hillside gone.

You can feel this in ordinary ways. Say I am exhausted five times before noon and notice what your body does with that. The words are not neutral commentary, they are instructions you keep giving yourself.

So this is not about forcing yourself to sound upbeat while everything burns. It is about whether what you say lines up with what God has already said about you. He called you blessed and righteous and His, so you are not inventing something hopeful, you are repeating Him. The Holy Spirit will keep bringing the right words to mind if you let Him.

You have been talking about your life all year. It is worth noticing what you have been planting while you did it.