“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”
– Proverbs 16:24
Ah, what a great Word just to meditate on today and to pray that God would help us to apply today. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb. Gracious words are like sweetness to the soul and like health to the body.”
Lord, help us to build up others with our words today.
We see this all over God’s Word, the power of our words, the potential in our words for blessing others, for encouraging others, for building others up, the potential in our words for bringing sweetness to others, health to others. We can do so much with our words on that level, or we could do the opposite, right?
This Verse Highlights the Danger of Our Words
Our words can tear down so quickly. God, our words can beat down. Our words can harm. Our words can hurt so quickly. It’s so easy to say something, either in its content or in its tone, even the way we speak that leads to other’s harm, that leads to other’s hurt, that is not good for others, that is not sweetness to the soul for others or health to the body for others.
Just think about your words today, in your home, your work, in your neighborhood, apartment complex, wherever you live, as you’re out running an errand at the store. You have such potential with your words today to be gracious and good for others and glorifying to God, or to be hurtful or harsh or just unhelpful or missing out on opportunities to be helpful with our words.
Proverbs 16:24 Prays for Righteous Interactions with Others
Let’s just pray. God help us, help us to build up others with our words today. God help us to be gracious with our words. I pray for every interaction I have today, with my wife, with my kids, with the people I work alongside, God, with the people I meet that I don’t even know I’m going to meet, the people I interact with. God, I pray that You would use my words to be gracious, to be sweetness for others’ souls today, to bring health to others’ bodies today, through the way I speak, and what I say. I pray this for each of us. God help us, help us, we pray, fill our mouths with gracious words.
I pray for the people who are listening to this right now. Please, give them grace to love others well, to serve others well, to care for others well, and to glorify You through gracious words today. God guard our mouths. God, we pray that You would give us self-control in this. I pray that You would cause our words to be compassionate and kind and edifying and encouraging. God, please, please, please, use every word we say today toward that end. Make our words gracious, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
