Meyer - Change Your Words, Change Your Life

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Copyright 2012 by Joyce Meyer

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

FaithWords

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First ebook edition: September 2012

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ISBN 978-1-4555-1722-0

Words can poison, words can heal.

Words start and fight wars, but words make peace.

Words lead men to the pinnacles of good

And words can plunge men to the depths of evil.

Marguerite Schumann

M ost of us dont realize how powerful words are and how huge an impact they have on our lives. Think about it. Even two simple syllablesDa-daare powerful enough to make a grown man cry when uttered for the first time by his baby.

I believe that words contain tremendous power: it can be either positive, constructive power or negative, destructive power.

In Genesis, we read that God used words to create the world we live in. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:21 that the power of life and death are in the tongue. That is an amazing statement and one that we should seriously consider. Each time we speak words, we are speaking either life or death to those who hear us and to ourselves. So we need to be cautious about the words we utter.

Our mouth gives expression to what we want, think, and feel; therefore, it reveals a great deal about the one who is speaking. We can learn a lot about ourselves just by listening to the things that we say. Matthew 12:3435 says that out of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things. Our words are the result of our inner thoughts and attitudes. One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes that we have.

I believe that our words can increase or decrease our level of joy. They can affect the answers to our prayers, and have a positive or negative effect on our future. We should pay a lot of attention to what the Word of God has to teach us about the power of our words. When a person isnt satisfied with the condition of her life, it would be wise to take an inventory of the words she has spoken.

God has a good plan for each one of us, but it wont automatically happen without our cooperation. We are partners with God in this life, and He wants us to be in agreement with what He has spoken about us in His Word. As you read this book, I believe you will gain new insight into the fact that as you change your words, you can change your life.

T herese was a fabulous worker, friend, and colleague. Everyone in her office loved herfrom her bosses to the cleaning lady. She always had a kind word for everyone. One of her best assets was her amazing ability to help people feel good about themselves. She could make someone whose feelings had been hurt feel like they were the best thing since sliced bread. She could make an insecure colleague feel like a genius. Her sense of humor always lifted others moods and made them laugh even if they were annoyed or unhappy. Not only that, but she was smartvery smart. In her five years on the job, she had received three promotions, and her employer had recently told her that she was on a fast track toward a management position. If things continued the way they were going, she could even expect a vice-presidency within just a few years.

One evening while working late on a project, she discovered that her boss had made a bad judgment call in a speech that he had written and asked her to edit. He had included a foolish joke that some could find offensive. Therese picked up the phone to leave him a voice mail and tell him her thoughts. What were you thinking, boss? she said. Dont you know the CEO will hate that joke? And he has no sense of humor.

Unfortunately, instead of sending the voice mail to her boss, Therese inadvertently pressed a button that sent the voice mail to everyone in the company. The next morning, chaos ensued. While Therese wasnt fired, she didnt get that next promotionor the one after. The push of a button had sealed her future at the company.

Thats an extreme incident, but there are many others today that have far greater consequences. Children no longer tease one another; they bully each other, and bullying isnt an exception among studentsits the norm. It doesnt just happen at school or play; it happens on the Internet, too. In fact, a new word has entered our vocabulary: cyberbullying. Facebook is now sometimes used as a weapon.

Never in the history of the world have words been so cheap, quick, irrevocable, and viral. Through cell phones and the Internet, we now have texting, e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In addition, we have radio, television, and printed media. Words are flying around in the atmosphere like never before. As of June 2010, 77.2 percent of all Americans use the Internet (267 million people). One quarter of the worlds population is online. Forty-one percent of all Americans actively maintain a profile page on Facebook, which generates one billion pieces of content every single day. U.S. awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5 percent in 2008 to 87 percent in 2010, and by now the figures are even greater. In 2010, more than 17 million Americans used Twitter and the average number of tweets per day in the United States alone was 15.5 million.

Obviously, there are good uses of all these forms of communication; however, there are many disturbing consequences, including online bullying that has led to teenage suicide, identity theft, child safety risk, pornography addiction, and ruined careers. Job applicants lose out because of Facebook accounts of bad behavior; workers send ill-advised e-mails before thinking.