Speaking Life Over Yourself

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits." — Proverbs 18:21

Brother — listen to the words you have spoken over yourself this week.

I am such an idiot. I will never get this right. I am exhausted. I cannot do this. I am a fraud. I am a hypocrite. I should know better. What is wrong with me. I always do this. I will never change.

Some of those have been said in your head. Some out loud. Some in front of your wife, your kids, your team. They are the running narration of your life. They are also a sermon — a shame sermon — that you have been preaching at yourself for decades.

And you have been listening. The mind cannot tell the difference between someone else's words and your own. It just records. It records "I am a fraud" the same way it records anything else, and over the years it accumulates a weighted average of the things you have said about yourself, and that average becomes your default sense of who you are.

You have been forming yourself with your tongue. James 3 has been telling you this for two thousand years.

Here is the reverse. Speak life. Out loud. Not because you feel it. Because the Father said it.

Try this for thirty days. Every morning, before any other voice, speak these aloud:

• "I am the Father's son."
• "I am a new creation. The old has passed away."
• "I am free in Christ. The chains are broken."
• "My mind is being renewed. I am not who I was."
• "I am loved with an everlasting love."
• "I am a B.O.L.D. brother. I do not walk alone."

Add one specific to your situation. "I am a faithful husband to Sarah. I am a present father to my kids. I am a man of integrity at my job."

Two warnings.

You will feel like a fraud the first week. That is not a sign that the practice is wrong. That is the shame voice protesting. Keep going. The first week of speaking truth feels like lying because the lies have been the loudest voice. By week three the truth starts to feel real. By week six it has become the new default. By week twelve a brother says "something is different about you," and you do not know exactly what to point to. You have re-trained the inner voice.

Do not stop because you fell. A fall does not undo the truth of who you are in Christ. It makes the speaking of it more important, not less. The day after a fall, the shame voice will be screaming. You speak louder. "I fell. The fall does not define me. I am the Father's son. I am being made new. The thief tried to claim me last night and he could not, because I belong to Jesus."

Speak life, brother. Death has had your tongue long enough.