How powerful are your words?  Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or the President, your words are powerful.  They can be like a life preserve or a wrecking ball. 
Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  Think about it.  A person says something to you and you start to think about it.  If you think about it long enough, the thought will provoke an action on your part.  If the action persists over time, it becomes a habit.  The habit, left unchecked, dictates your destiny.  This can be a good thing or a bad thing.
I have a friend whose mother made a passing comment about her weight.  The mother moved on and didn’t give it another thought; however, my friend meditated on the comment until she decided to control her food intake for a few days.  Because she got the desired result of losing a couple of pounds, she continued in this action until it became a habit.  Over time, my friend lost so much weight she had to be hospitalized and almost died. It took years of counseling for this young woman to change her thought patterns and become free from the trap of an eating disorder. It all started with one comment, one word.
We cannot control the words that come our way, but we can choose what we do with them.  We can allow them to take root, by meditating on them or we can throw them out with the trash.  The choice is ours. We may not be able to do it on our own, but we can do it with God’s help [Philippians 4:13].
In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul said, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We examine the words and thoughts that come our way. If they line up with what God says about us or our circumstances, then we can allow them to take root and grow.  If they contradict what God says about us or our situation, then we need to get rid of them.  Stinking thinking leads to death.
God is truth [John 14:6].  What He says about us is truth. We fulfill 2 Corinthians 10:5 when we sift our words and thoughts through the Word of God to make sure they line up.  If they do, they get to stay, if not, they’ve got to go.  I love the Message translation of this verse.  It says, “We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”  Simply put, God’s truth is our truth.  If a thought or word doesn’t line up with what God’s truth says, it’s warped and we are to smash it with the Word, just as Jesus did in Matthew 4:1-13. The Word is our powerful God-tool [Ephesians 6:17].
It’s time we all take inventory of what we’ve allowed to take root in our mind.  Anything that doesn’t line up with the Truth doesn’t get to stay. Grab your powerful God-tool and ask the Lord to show you if your thoughts line up with what He thinks and says about you and your circumstances.  If He reveals something to you that doesn’t line up, start smashing and then plant the Truth in its place.