Good morning:  

Please read my profile information to find out more about these "Got Word?'s"   I normally will be writing these daily bible devotionals as noted but today I want to introduce you to a brother in Christ - Anthony Skinner.  He wrote the devotional you will read today and he called it "Got a Little Word."  It may be a "little Word" but it being little belies the power and authority communicated in it.  One word describes it -- AWESOME!

I thank Anthony for letting  me post this.  Thanks.

May God bless you in ministry through this "little Word"

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I believe that there is a balm in Gilead, there is healing taking place right now, God bless you all. 

We all have been angered at some point in our lives. Today what the Lord placed on my heart during prayer was a scripture that was e-mailed to me from the Heartlight’s daily devotionals.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” Proverbs 15:1

I remember as a young boy in SE DC I had a temper but that temper was brought about by having to defend myself verbally and physically while growing up in the old neighborhood. You kind of learn that being quick witted or quick on the draw may help to give people the impression and you may earn a reputation that you are not to be messed with. Either way some of us adults have not learned to put childish behavior where it belongs, in check, and dealt with in a mature manner. Imagine this or I can’t even imagine myself reacting to situations as I did as 11, 12, or 13 years old now that I’m 53. I would either be in jail or dead.  Oh but there are times when Satan will send folks and use our own ego and pride to lead us to be angry at someone or at something.

Proverbs, as you all probably all know has some profound sayings.  God knows what affects all of us and how it affects and so does Satan. But God is a living God and by the blood of Jesus our lives can be transformed and we can be liberated and set free. While the evil one comes to divide, destroy, and deceive. Having an anger problem when I was young and into my early adulthood, I believe that God has showed my how I can be understanding when I am faced with a situation of whether to bless someone by the tongue or literally and figuratively curse someone by the tongue.

I remember just a few years ago when my neighbor pulled a shotgun at me and threatened to shoot while pointing it at me to shoot. Well my old SE self rose up out of me like “Nat Turner”, and I believed had I taken the gun I might have dissed out a good ole school butt woopin. But the Holy Spirit intervened. Everything that God had, since He is all powerful came to my rescue. My point here is that throughout all of our lives, even as saved and sanctified as we all believe we are, we will face a situation where we may be angered up to and beyond the a point where we can loose it.

Proverbs 15 speaks to self control and acting foolish, “the tongue of the wise commends knowledge; the tongue that brings healing is a tree of life; …but he who heeds correction shows prudence; the lips of the wise spreads knowledge, not so the hearts of fools;  A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. Just to name a few, I encourage you all to read all of Psalm 15. You can actually make a prayer for yourself from the scripture that will most definitely help you in your spiritual walk.

Over the course of my life God have placed people in my path that have shared a kind word and if I could sum up everything like this; Don’t let know body steal your joy…don’t give someone power over you by allowing them to dictate how you will react to any situation and play you like a puppet.

I once heard a sermon and the pastor said something like this: the person had said something really bad and hurtful to someone else, so this person had asked for forgiveness. The other person said well I will forgive if you can do this, take a handful of feathers, (now I don’t know where a person would get a handful of feathers from.. but you all know how the word is preached up in the Black church J J) so take this handful of feathers and go out in the middle of a busy intersection and stand and throw all of the feathers up in the air, now go out and gather up all of the feathers that you have just let go and if you can retrieve all of the feathers then I will forgive you of every single word and every single time that you said anything to me that was hurtful and intentionally spiteful, harsh, cursing and gossip. I will forgive you. The moral here is that when we speak harsh and intentional spiteful words out of our mouths that cut to the core of our very being we can’t take those words back. And I can almost assure you that when folks leave this earth if so much distance has been created between two people that they will regret every unkind word ever spoken. The real sad fact is that when folks live in daily anger, because anger is a bad spirit, scripture says do not sin in your anger; we all get angry but we should no constantly dwell in our anger don’t make anger our home, but maybe just a very, very brief stopover, not even a vacation; just forgive and move-on; but my point is don’t park in anger. Because I have learned that that anger will consume you and you do OWN the very spirit and words that you speak harshly to someone else and it will affect your health and well being.

God bless. 

Got a little Word