A few of us gather in church on Thursday mornings for prayer. Various topics appear on the screen as we pray, prompting prayer. They aren’t always the same. Sometimes the topics are timely, such as praying for a new series. Sometimes the topics are static, such as praying for healing or deliverance or salvations.
The one topic that always deeply touches my heart is praying for our church leadership and their families. As I prayed this past Thursday, the LORD touched my spirit, and I felt led to pray for “kind words.”
God brought back a memory of the time I was a Hospice Chaplain and part-time Associate Pastor. After one Sunday Service a woman in the congregation approached me with “a word” she said she received from the LORD for me. She took me aside and told me that I had a “hard heart.”
Her words shocked me, and her timing could not have been worse. Within the hour I was to be officiating at a funeral service for a young Christian man. This man had survived a tour of duty in Viet Nam. Then when he got home, he broke his neck in an accident, becoming a quadriplegic. He developed AIDS following a blood transfusion. He loved his family. He loved the LORD. And in my time ministering to him, I grew to love him.
To be told that I had a hard heart as I was getting ready for his funeral crushed me.
I was reminded of this incident as I prayed for our church leadership. I was reminded of how badly words can wound. We need to be so careful with our words when we speak to others, especially to those God has chosen to stand in the gap for us. We should be encouraging them always. These men and women have a tough enough job without our words bringing them pain.
Proverbs 15:4: “Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
