Selah with Pastor Joyce: September 2007

About Me

Location: United States

Reverend Joyce Irvin Harris, an ordained pastor-teacher, brings over 30 years of experience equipping people to live Power-filled lives of faith and service. Reverend Harris has provided pastoral leadership to congregations in South Carolina, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Michigan. As a Navy chaplain, she ministered to Sea Service commands ashore and afloat. She is now involved in an itinerant ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. Yet, unbeknownst to most, on August 23, 1998, her life was radically changed by a drunken hit and run driver who totaled her car and left her with both physical and cognitive deficits. Ten years later, she suffered a mild stroke. However, Joyce Irvin Harris is nobody’s victim! Quite the contrary, she describes herself as a “brain injury overcomer.” Those who hear her message leave with a clear understanding that, through biblical faith, they can indeed be the light of the world and overcomers of every adverse situation. She unlocks the Word so Bible-believing people everywhere understand that they are made in God’s image to “be only at the top and not at the bottom” in all things.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The Power of Words

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
~ Proverbs 18:21a, NKJV

We often have no clue as to the power of the words we speak, especially those spoken in anger. We blow up and blow off oblivious to the carnage we leave in our wake. And the closer we are to the person to which we're speaking, the more powerful the message we deliver. Yet, it never becomes too late to repent and offer deliverance to the wounded along with yourself.

I received a phone call from a someone I hadn't heard from in 30 years. Words spoken in anger those many years ago deeply wounded me and created an insecurity that haunted me lo these many years. The insecurity, based on a lie, held an otherwise confident woman in emotional bondage. No matter what my brain or others told me, I could not shake the inner tape that told me I was defective.

Yesterday, that same person found me to ask forgiveness and set the record straight. Things were not as I had believed them to be. Harsh words spoken were soon regretted, but pride and youthful immaturity valued saving face more than saving a friend. While there's remorse, there's certainly no condemnation because we've all been there. However, it takes maturity to reach out after all these years to make amends and set things aright.

A weight was lifted for not one person, but two. Two people were restored by the power of words. A friendship between now mature adults was rekindled. The same tongue that dealt death brought life.

NEVER underestimate the power of your words.