Mysty Pfeffer“And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Isaiah 6:5
When the eyes of Isaiah fall upon the seraphim praising and worshiping the Lord, he is stricken with grief at his own corruption. Images of the people in his life and his interaction with them dart through his memory. Immediately he feels remorse.
The acute presence of a Holy God brings us to our knees. Every time.
When the scales fall off my eyes and I see clearly my sin before Him, I then understand and grieve words from my own lips. The sharp tone, criticism, nor the callous remarks spilling from my mouth are the hope our Lord wishes us to impart to others. Quite the contrary, it’s a sure sign of lingering bitterness. The stricken conscience resulting from the barrage of words, acknowledges the grievance before our Savior. Therefore, opening the door for repentance.
How important are words among people anyway?
Several years ago, I reprimanded my daughter for her language. Her friend promptly responded, “Why? They’re just words.” Taken aback by her response, I shut down. A less wise woman at the time, I withdrew to contemplate the carelessness of words, the deepness of words, and how often we assume our words have no impact.
Are they just words? It’s obviously not “cool” to think too highly of them. I often regret passing up the opportunity to teach that young lady. I just didn’t want to hurt her feelings or know how to guide her thinking at the time. Maybe her own scarring from past hurtful words led her to convince herself “words don’t matter”.
What I would love to tell her now is that words have the power of life and death. I’d ask, “How many relationships have been torn apart because of words? How many children live in fear and anxiety because of the unleashed fury of words?” Most likely, the same number of children who learn compassion, love, kindness, and patience by the use of gentle words.
The beauty of Isaiah’s unclean lips is submitting them to God. He is forgiven and has the opportunity to make amends! Because the moment Isaiah realizes his shame and guilt before our Holy God, he has a heart change. Oh, how I’d love this to happen for this girl! Maybe it will! God is open to intercession and while we’re both alive, it’s never too late.
Isaiah’s desire is to ask God for restoration. He says in Isaiah 6:5 “And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (New International Version Isaiah 6:5-6).
The burning coal for you and me is the Holy Spirit living in us. He is guiding us through the difficult areas of restoration. Even though our heart reconstruction has taken place, maybe our old habits are hard to break. Here are three ways we can ACT to clean up our lips:
- Acknowledge the careless or hurtful words and the emotion behind them.
- Confess: Lord, I see my words have power of life and death, please forgive me for my words of anger, frustration, gossip, and slander that hurt others. Please fill me with words of life that encourage and love others.
- Tell the person at the other end of those words, ” I am sorry“.
Memory verse for my thoughts and words:
“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.” ( New International Version, 2 Corinthians 10:5).
I pray you and I have the wisdom to compare our lives to the life of Jesus and no other starting today. The first step to restoring unclean lips is acknowledging the root cause and seeking God’s healing power of forgiveness. True repentance is signified in the grief over our sin, and it is a clear sign of a transformed heart. We want to please our Father. May we remember and pray this for lost opportunities as well as future occasions sure to arise.
