Reality Check

We’ve been spending some time talking about words these past couple of weeks. 

If you missed the last two, check them out here and here.

Did you know that words can define reality?

Pretty crazy, right?

Just the simple act of speaking a word about something or someone can actually begin to determine how you perceive it and maybe even treat it moving forward.

That’s a scary thought.. 

Those little things we use all day long without even thinking have the power to control what we believe and how we act.

We can start to believe lies by simply saying them or typing them out.

And that has some pretty heavy implications because if we believe them, then we often like and share them. 

And that, friends, is how lies begin to spread..

Proverbs 18:8 says, “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.”

This tells us that negative words (A.K.A. Gossip) go down to our inmost parts.

We internalize them.

And we can generally spot gossip because it always make the speaker look good and the object being talked about look bad.

These negative words we speak about something or someone can help create and sustain prejudices, biases, fears, and anxieties that sometimes take years to uproot.

That’s a lot of POWER.

Unfortunately, negative words have become easier to consume and share than ever before. 

We’ve been given endless mediums to do it - YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram Live, Podcasts, Blogs, Etc. 

All it takes now is the click of a button. A like or a share and BOOM. It’s out there.

We consume them. Internalize them. Speak them..

AND THEN..

Actually start to believe them and share them.

So what can we do to fix it?

1. Fill Yourself With TRUTH (Psalm 51:6). Consume God’s word and delight in it (Jeremiah 15:16) FIRST THING in the morning, instead of those news articles on Facebook or opinions on Twitter. If we consume TRUTH and speak TRUTH, then we’ll begin to believe TRUTH and spread TRUTH.

2. Pause and Think. Put some thought in before you share. Like Allie said last week, ask yourself if these words I’m about to speak are TRUE? Are they helpful? Are they uplifting? Are the positive? That may mean doing the hard work of figuring out whether or not the source of what you’re speaking and believing is actually credible. 

We’ve go to start internalizing the TRUTH because the TRUTH sets us free (John 8:31-32).

Maybe then, we’d start changing reality for the better, start thinking more positively, start believing the best. 

Maybe we wouldn’t be so skeptical of everything we see and/or read and give people the benefit of the doubt. 

Let’s do a reality check and make sure we speak TRUTH so that we can all begin to BE AT EASE.