LET IT END WITH YOU
Proverbs 26:17-28
Gossip is idle talk about someone’s private or personal matters when the person is not there. Without realizing it, gossip is deeply rooted in our need to feel good about ourselves. It presents an illusion that we are better than the subject of our gossip (superiority complex). It is an act of wickedness that is capable of not only setting friends against each other but can also destroy nations.
In Christendom, it is often started with the phrase: “We need to pray for so and so…”, then the tale-bearing starts. We discuss their problems, adding our own opinion, if we ever pray for them at all. Verse 20 says, “Where there is no wood, the fire goes out”. Same applies to gossip. It survives when it is spread. But when it reaches the ear of someone who will not share it further, it dies. It is like wild fire, once started; it is very difficult to stop. That is why we must not start it at all. We must however trust God to help us desist from the sinful and equally destructive habit. We need the wisdom of God to know the right time to speak and what to say, and when not speak at all.
If it is necessary we speak at all, we should be guided by the Spirit of God that we only speak those things that encourage people and help them to achieve divine purpose; and not those things that will discourage and/or hurt them. Listen, if you cannot avoid the tales, but let the whispering (telling) end with you.
MEDITATION: “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. In a multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:18-19).
