The Spark | Daily Devotional 1617

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast episode 1617. Today's Devo is called The Spark.

Hey there, we're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Hello, everyone. My name is Lauren Burgos, and I am your host for this week, and we are talking and doing our devotional out of James 3. I'm personally reading out of the NIV version if you want to follow along. And we, it's actually a very short chapter, so I highly recommend you go back and read it yourself. Um, the two weeks before this was James 1, the week before this was James 2, and now I'm reading out of James 3. So it's pretty easy to follow along. I bet you wonder what's gonna come next. Um so we're James 3 is kind of talking only about like the tongue and the words that come out of your mouth. And yesterday in the beginning of James 3, it talks about how like not everyone should become a teacher, because when you become a teacher, you're judged super harshly. And that's because of the words that you say. So if you want to become a teacher, just be prepared for that. Um, but also like it's kind of amazing how such a small thing, such as the tongue, can control the whole body. So that was yesterday. And today, when I was kind of going through like what verse do I want to pick? I mean, it's just so short, but also it every verse is just like a home run. I was like, I can't pick one. So we're gonna read a little bit more today. Um, so we're gonna read out of James 3, verses 5 through 8. And it says this likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Verse 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Verse 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind. In verse 8, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. So you can kind of see why I couldn't pick one, because they're all kind of like doomsday verses. It's like, what is positive about this? I don't know. But as I was sort of picking apart these verses, in verse five it says, likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Pause right there. How many of you have found yourself saying great things maybe about yourself or about your life? And maybe your life or your heart didn't or your mind didn't fully catch up to that, like, oh, watch how great I'm gonna be, watch how great my life's gonna be. And that was really your tongue leading the way, or your words leading the way. It wasn't really God's plan. It wasn't really wisdom leading the way. And then it continues to say, consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. That's a great analogy because imagine what small words we have said or small like sayings we've said, and it starts a whole fight, or it starts a whole thing. And we didn't realize what maybe we did. Sometimes we're like, I know this is the right thing to say, and it's gonna make this person mad. And it's really like setting a whole forest on on fire by just a small spark, by just a small word, saying things like, you know, you never do this, or you know, you always do this, and then boom, a huge argument explodes. And it's a great forest set on fire by a small spark. And then verse six, it says, the tongue also is a fire, a world full of evil, evil among the parts of the body, it corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Which I think it's what James is just trying to show us here is that if we allow the tongue to lead our whole body, if we allow it to be the rudder that leads us, then it is full of evil itself. If we allow words to be the thing that makes great boasts, that is a spark igniting a whole forest fire, then our tongue is full of evil. It's gonna be the thing that that leads our body to a world full of evilness and essentially to hell. It's not gonna be something that immediately leads with wisdom. So James here is like, yeah, it's rooted in evil. It's not something that that immediately comes with wisdom, which James three gets to later. We will get to later in this week, wisdom. But it says the tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body. So it's a warning here, letting us know that what we say, our words, can absolutely be a sort of corruption to our whole body. Verse 7: all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. So maybe you're listening to this and you're like, this is the most depressing devotional I've ever heard. What am I supposed to do? I think James here, because again, sometimes we read the word to get things out of it. And sometimes we read the word to get insight into who God is. And I think that is what this episode is about. We're not reading here to get, oh, to feel good about ourselves, because I mean, quite frankly, we're not. Here we just heard all kinds of animals have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. So it's kind of like, well, there's nothing you can do about that. But I think it's just a warning here, which shows God's character that He is a God who's like, hey, I'm giving you a warning here. That's a the tongue and your words, and and when you don't think before you speak, and when you don't lead with wisdom, and when you don't lead with my righteousness, and you're not leaning on me, your words and your tongue is gonna get you into some trouble. And no human being is exempt from that. And that's where I want to kind of take today's episode. It's not from a, we're reading this to really make myself feel good about myself and really to get something out of it. No, it's just here we're reading about God's character. Here we're learning more about God, and here we're seeing God's giving us a warning that if we don't pause and say, hey, whoa, that is me. What I say gets me in a lot of trouble. And God says that like even animals and creatures can be tamed by humankind, except for the tongue. The tongue can't even be tamed by any human being. And God has a good enough heart to say, I'm letting you know about this. So you can submit to my righteousness. So you can submit to my wisdom. So let's pray and let's continue on with what God has to say about wisdom and applying it to our tongue in the next episodes. But for now, let's pray. Dear Lord, that sometimes we read your word and immediately we just feel encouraged. And then sometimes we read your word, Lord, and we learn more about you and we feel challenged and equipped. Lord, we thank you so much that your word is alive and is constantly equipping us and challenging us. So, Lord, help us find wisdom so that Lord, we can become better stewards of holding our tongue when we need to, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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