Be Encouraged

“Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops. A quarrelsome person starts fights as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood. Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart.”                      Proverbs 26:20-22 NLT

When I first moved to Panama, I wanted to get plugged into the community by joining a couple of women’s bible studies.  At one of those studies, I sat down at a table with several ladies and proceeded to listen to them completely slander one of their “friends” from church. Maybe, because I was still an outsider, I could watch from a distance. Maybe, because I didn’t know them well or who they were talking about, I was able to just observe…  what I saw, was this verse. They were lighting fires, sharing tasty morsels, and fanning hot embers. Which later, completely destroyed the study group.  

Although this was a powerful and lasting lesson, I still can struggle with being tempted by those “tasty morsels” with putting another log on the fire. But I know as I grow in my relationship with Jesus, and my heart is softened by His love, I notice that I can hear the ugly in gossip and not the tasty morsel.  I can feel the pain of those being talked about and want to put out the fire.  I can use the living waters of God’s Word to extinguish the flames.  When I consume the delicious Word of God, it becomes a part of me, fills me up!!!  And I know that as I am filled with His Word, there will be no hunger for gossip’s “tasty morsels”!!!  

Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for your powerful Word.  Keep me hungry for more and more of You Lord, so all I share is Your light and love with others.  Amen