The Cause Of Too Many Fires

So many forest fires.  So much smoke over vast areas of North America and indeed, across the planet.  Pictures of smoky cities and rural areas are an all too frequent part of the nightly newscast.

It takes so little to cause a huge fire.  Well, lightning strikes for sure.  More than half of the fires in Canada last year were caused that way.

But, we also know that things like careless tossing of cigarette butts, sparks from off-terrain vehicles, campfire sparks or even campfires not properly extinguished.  People, for the most part, being careless and just not bothering to do simple things in areas that are tinder dry.

An even bigger concern with more long lasting and far reaching devastating effects are fires caused in this way:

The tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

James 3:5-6

Whether it’s inspiration or criticism, commendation or gossip, encouragement or angry accusation and condemnation of whatever sort, our tongue has the power to do incredible good or incredible harm.

Do we want to be a refreshing influence to people or start a devastating forest fire?  The choice is ours.

So, Loving God, we pray with you today in words You have given us.

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Psalm 141:3

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

Let’s take care of how we speak so we don’t cause fire damage today.