Billy Graham Daily Devotional September 17, 2017
Topic: The Power of Words
Key Verse: The tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do . . . – James 3:5 (TLB)
MESSAGE: There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip—she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” she pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.”
Read Daily Devotional Messages: True Friendship
After a long time the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.”
Audio: Billy Graham preaches on the sins of the tongue.
Prayer for the day: Might my words about another be ones that are spoken in the spirit of Your loving kindness, Father.
This Daily Devotional Messages was written by Billy Graham, the Founder of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. (BGEA)