Our thoughts and words need to be guided by God

James 3:5-6 (NLT)
5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

The Apostle James, half-brother of Jesus, tells us we can make grand speeches, but it only takes a few incorrectly chosen words to create a spark that sets the forest on fire. It doesn’t take much for our thoughts and words to turn against us. We need to always guard our heart and keep it on the right path.


Ravi Zacharias writes in, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend (Thomas Nelson, 2007), pp. 258-261 that In 1981, Stuart McAllister was part of a mission whose primary task was to help the church in Eastern Europe by transporting Bibles, hymn books, and Christian literature to believers.

On one occasion, while attempting to cross the border from Austria into what was then Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia, Stuart and his colleague were arrested and thrown into prison after guards discovered their concealed cargo.

Without any idea when or if he might be released—it would be a two-week confinement—Stuart's empty time and restricted space began to bring to surface feelings, questions, and doubts.

"In such circumstances," Stuart writes [in retrospect], "we are forced to face what we mean when we speak of faith. Do we have to believe in spite of the evidence to the contrary? Do we believe no matter what? How do we handle the deep and pressing questions our own minds bring as our expectations and reality do not match? For me, in my time in prison, I expected God to do certain things, and to do them in a sensible way and time. I expected that God would act fairly quickly and that I would sense his intervention. My reading of Scripture, my grasp of God's promises, my trust in the reliability of God's Word, the teaching I had received, and the message I had embraced, had led me to expect certain things, and in a particular way. When this did not occur in the way I expected, or in the timing that I thought it should, I was both confused and angry." …

Stuart continues: "Since I had never given any conscious thought to worldviews in general, or mine in particular, I was unaware how many unexamined assumptions I was living by. I did not realize how little change had penetrated my heart, and under pressure the gaps were painfully revealed and felt. From the perspective of time, I can now answer these questions meaningfully, but I needed the experience of doubt and hardship to show me how much I did not know or was not rooted in the biblical answers to these core questions. A worldview that merely answers questions intellectually is insufficient; it must also meet us existentially where we have to live."