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Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
Devotional: November 24th

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“Then began he to curse and to swear.”

A bishop was walking alone in his garden one day, meditating on the activities of the past week. When the memory of a very embarrassing incident flashed across his mind, he let out a string of expletives that were rather salty, to say the least. One of his parishioners, walking on the other side of the high garden wall, heard the unministerial language and gasped in disbelief.

It was a case of private profanity—a heartbreaking trial in the life of many an earnest child of God. Hundreds groan under the oppression of this hideous habit, realizing how dishonoring it is to the Lord and how defiling it is in one’s own life. Yet all their efforts to break the habit prove fruitless.

The unwelcome words usually pour forth when a person is alone (or thinks he is) and when he is under nervous tension. Sometimes they are the audible expression of pent-up anger. Sometimes they give vent to our feelings of frustration. In the bishop’s case, they were his natural reaction to the shame of being embarrassed.

Even worse than the agony of private profanity is the fear that some day the words will slip out in public. Or when we are asleep. Or when we are under an anesthetic in the hospital.

This old habit returned to Peter on the night of the Savior’s trial. When he was pointed out as a companion of Jesus of Galilee, he denied it with curses and swearing. He never would have done it in a relaxed state, but now he was in peril and in extreme duress, and the words came forth with all the facility of his unconverted days.

In spite of our best intentions and most earnest resolutions, the words slip out before we have a chance to think. They catch us completely off guard.

Must we despair of ever conquering this Goliath in our lives? No, there is the promise of victory over this as over all other temptations. First, we must confess and forsake the sin every time we fall. Then we must cry to God to put a watch before our lips. We must ask for power to respond to the unfavorable circumstances of life with poise and quietness. Sometimes the act of confessing the fault to some other believer helps to break the powerful habit. Finally, we must always remember that while others may not hear it on earth, our Father hears it in heaven. The remembrance of how offensive it is to Him should serve as a powerful deterrent for us.

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