Thursday, April 10th, 2025
Usually the inside of the sandwich is the best part, but in today’s passage of scripture it’s better to be on the outside. Proverbs 12:5-6 says:
5 The thoughts of the righteous are right,
But the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
6 The words of the wicked are, “Lie in wait for blood,”
But the mouth of the upright will deliver them.
In this decade of “peh” according to the Jewish calendar (5780s) it’s important to use our mouth to declare God’s truth to open doors He wants us to open and close doors that we have allowed the enemy to use. So that’s one of our outer sandwich layers. But the other outer layer that comes first in this passage are the thoughts and ideas that we allow to ruminate. If these are righteous and truth-filled, then the words that we speak will follow suit. If, however, our thoughts are any bit of worry, doubt, anger or pride, the words that we speak will not deliver or protect us. They will instead feed into more worry, doubt, anger, and pride.
This is one of those reminders that seems so elemental. It’s easy to understand and our spirit knows it to be true. But convincing our soul and our flesh to stay on the outside of the sandwich often proves quite challenging. Even the enemy knows the power of our thoughts and our words and that is why he tries so hard to partner with our soul and flesh to think and speak curses and death instead of blessings and life.
All across our culture we have adopted so many phrases that people say in jest thinking they are adding flavor to the conversation, but in reality it’s still a curse. Phrases like, “that gave me a heart attack”, “I just about died laughing so hard”, “If I ever get hit by a bus…”, “I wouldn’t be able to handle that”, “the older I get the more [something negative about the body’s ability]”, and on and on. If these are the words we are willing to speak, what are all the other thoughts that we allow to precede these things? This is not meant to condemn but to give us all a chance to reflect and examine our thoughts and words. Like the Bible says, any amount of leaven leavens the whole lump (Galations 5:9).
Final Thoughts…
It takes much conscious effort to speak only the words that have the power to deliver us and those around us. It starts by thinking only these thoughts. We must think entirely different than our culture. We have to take in as much of the Word of God as we can so that we can think on the things that are true and noble. God says we have all the strength and ability we need no matter how old we are. God says He has a defined future for us full of fulfilled promises and incredible blessings. God says we have angels assigned to us so that we will not even dash our foot against a rock. God says He provides a way through every temptation, lonely valley and suffering we will ever face. When we think on these things our speech gives us the ability to fully experience them.