"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" - Col 4:6 (NIV).
Food without seasoning is generally bland. To make it palatable every fine cook loves to find spices which when added to a dish bring out a certain salivating taste. Spices which are drawn from seeds, roots or dried fruit, are very helpful whenever used to flavor dishes. For those who relish a good taste, they can easily notice when a dish is quite tasteless for not being flavored with mouth watering spices.
Now, just as with dishes, our speech can be bland too, not inviting, like a tasteless dish. There was once a couple in history who illustrates this point. When King David needed a certain favor from Nabal whom once he had helped out he instructed his men to "Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!" (1 Samuel 25:6). David instructed his men to use speech flavored with grace.
Unfortunately Nabal was the kind not to notice the difference. Instead in return, "Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? ...Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?” (vv 10-11). This was not short of insult and once the message was relayed back to David he wasted no time to mount an attack on Nabal.
What saved the day was that Nabal's wife, Abigail, knew the power of speech seasoned with grace. Upon hearing the imminent attack she hurried up to the advancing troops and bending on her knees pleaded with soothing words, "Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live" (vv 28).
Speech is not neutral and the words of Abigail coupled with her gifts touched the furious David who decided to pause and pull back. David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands" (vv 32-33).
Any of us could easily be given to the brutal tongue of Nabal which only induces wrath. However, when our speech is seasoned with grace as was with Abigail, we clearly invite favor upon our lives.
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I pray that my speech may be seasoned with grace, to experience your favor and blessing, this I pray in Jesus's name!
Related upcoming events
-
19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
