Bridling Our Tounges
James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.
My most vivid memory of a bridle is when we prepared the horses to be hitched up to a sleigh. If the horse was agreeable and calm we would put all the harness on and the last piece would be the bridle. If the horse was lazy and didn’t want to be hitched we needed to take precautions and put the bridle on first. This limited the ability of the horse to see everything that was going on and therefore the horse often did not realize that he was being made ready for work until he was actually put into the sleigh. The bridle was what we used to put on horses in order to keep their attention in a particular direction. The bridle also helped them from being distracted by other things that were going on around them.
A bridle is anything that restrains or curbs: therefore to bridle the tongue would be to curb or restrain what it is allowed to produce. The tongue must be restrained to say only that which is true, and produces life. This will keep our lives pointed in the direction that is healthy and honorable before God.
In Psalm 23, in the midst of difficulty, King David bridled his tongue and spoke only about the goodness and greatness of God’s grace on his life. Notice his final statement in verse 6 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever."
By his tongue David was inviting goodness and mercy into his walk on earth. Some have said that goodness and mercy are actually angels that, when invited bring into our lives what their names refer too.
John 6:63 - The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
My most vivid memory of a bridle is when we prepared the horses to be hitched up to a sleigh. If the horse was agreeable and calm we would put all the harness on and the last piece would be the bridle. If the horse was lazy and didn’t want to be hitched we needed to take precautions and put the bridle on first. This limited the ability of the horse to see everything that was going on and therefore the horse often did not realize that he was being made ready for work until he was actually put into the sleigh. The bridle was what we used to put on horses in order to keep their attention in a particular direction. The bridle also helped them from being distracted by other things that were going on around them.
A bridle is anything that restrains or curbs: therefore to bridle the tongue would be to curb or restrain what it is allowed to produce. The tongue must be restrained to say only that which is true, and produces life. This will keep our lives pointed in the direction that is healthy and honorable before God.
In Psalm 23, in the midst of difficulty, King David bridled his tongue and spoke only about the goodness and greatness of God’s grace on his life. Notice his final statement in verse 6 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever."
By his tongue David was inviting goodness and mercy into his walk on earth. Some have said that goodness and mercy are actually angels that, when invited bring into our lives what their names refer too.
John 6:63 - The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
by: Bill Arsenault
