UCB Word For You

 

Word For You is no longer available in print or digital format although the archive of previous readings will remain available on this page for some time yet. If you'd like to continue with Word For You, you can listen to each day's devotional on the UCB Player app.

Speak positively (2)

03 September 2021
‘David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.’

Let’s start by acknowledging that sometimes life is hard. And at different times it’s harder for some of us than others. That’s why the Bible is realistic about it, and says there’s ‘a time to cry and a time to laugh’ (Ecclesiastes 3:4 NLT). But what if we only seem able to ‘cry’ about life? How can we reduce the strain of thinking and speaking negative words about ourselves? Here are three ways: 1) Cut and paste. We need to train ourselves to recognise negative inner talk the minute it starts and delete it immediately. If it helps, we can even make a ‘time out’ signal with our hands as a physical reminder to halt the negative words. But we shouldn’t stop there. We then need to replace those negative thoughts with scriptural words. ‘Those who are careful about what they say keep themselves out of trouble’ (Proverbs 21:23 NCV). 2) Change the tone. Sometimes the words we use can exaggerate a problem and make it seem beyond our capabilities. We need to try and recognise when we’re doing this and replace those intimidating words with something that’s more accurate. We might replace ‘impossible’ with ‘challenging’, or we could choose to say ‘let’s tackle it one step at a time’ rather than ‘it’ll take forever’. 3) Speak like a best friend. We should speak to ourselves like we would speak to our very best friend, with love, care and kindness. The Bible says, ‘David encouraged himself in the Lord his God’ (1 Samuel 30:6 KJV). There’s power in God’s Word, so, whatever He says about us, we should trust His opinion and start saying the same things about ourselves.

What Now?

Choose a Bible verse that reminds you of how much God loves you, and memorise it. Whenever you’re beginning to speak or think negatively about yourself, recite that verse instead.

Sign up to get your copy delivered

The UCB Word For You

Read More

30th Jan 2023
29th Jan 2023
28th Jan 2023
27th Jan 2023
26th Jan 2023
25th Jan 2023
24th Jan 2023
23rd Jan 2023
22nd Jan 2023
21st Jan 2023
20th Jan 2023
16th Jan 2023
15th Jan 2023
14th Jan 2023
06th Jan 2023

 

 

Articles

Meet: Guvna B
Meet: Housefires
‘We are here for you.’ A statement from UCB’s CEO, David L’Herroux.