I grew up my entire life in California. In high school I was a “valley girl” through and through, spewing out the words, “like” and “really” every 5 seconds. Naturally, the words “oh my gosh” were second nature to my tongue but what wasn’t was omg.
On its own, the words: “Oh”, “My”, “God” are nothing bad. Harmless even.
OH you really like that?
MY name is Sarah.
GOD is my life.
But put the words together and you have BLASPHEMY!
That’s right, blasphemy! You’re taking God’s name in vain. You’re de-holifying the name of God.
Did you know there’s POWER in His very name?!
In some cultures, they won’t even say His name because it’s too sacred.
Saying the word God is sacred and holy, and we’ve turned His name into a four-ring circus, throwing dirt on it, and spitting on it.
Let me ask you a question. Would you like it if one of your friends said “Oh my your name here“?
“Oh my Sarah”.
Immediately if I hear those words, I automatically think there’s trouble. Major trouble. God is not in trouble. He’s the king, the boss, He never gets in trouble, He’s perfect.
When we say omg, OMG, or Oh my God, we are defaming His name. It is not showing Him the respect, fear, and admiration He so rightly deserves.
What about, “that’s dope”?
Think it’s so innocent?
Now we are calling illegal drugs, GOOD!
The whole world is upside-down. Bad is good. Wicked is being praised. You have movies like Descendants telling us and our kids that bad is now the new good. And that’s the world. They can do whatever they want!
But for US, we are called to a higher standard.
We are called to holiness and that means questioning society, not just going along with them blindly.
Is what they’re doing offending God? Do you participate in it? If you’re just trying to be polite, at whose expense does that politeness come? The One who gave you life and upholds you!
We absolutely MUST watch our speech. Because it’s so very subtle surrounding us and creeps in without us even thinking about it. Get into the habit of paying attention. If your speech is unwholesome, you are not acting holy, nor being a godly witness/influence to the unsaved people in the world around you.
Take every thought captive before it becomes speech. 2 Corinthians 10:5-6 is a great verse to memorize to help you remember to guard your speech.
Can you think of anything else you say that would dishonor God? Think about how your speech lines up (Ephesians 4:29) and make a list of all the ways it doesn’t. Then repent to God and stop speaking in such ways.
If being around a particular person makes your speech unwholesome for example, then it’s prudent that you spend less time with that person. No matter how much “fun” they may be, the people around us affect our holiness. Guard who you spend time with. There are some people in our lives that we cannot get away from (some family, for example). Maybe they make your speech unwholesome. If that’s the case, make it a matter of prayer. Ask God to help you, ask God to limit your time with them more. Do whatever it takes to live a pure and holy life.
While you won’t go to Hell now as a believer, this is a great verse that shows the SERIOUSNESS of sin. Matthew 18:9. I feel like too many times in our lives, we do not take sin seriously enough, and it leads us ultimately to death.
Death of our conscience, death of our morality, death of our character, and some sins lead to physical death, yes.
Sin is to be taken very seriously. Therefore, holiness must be pursued.
