Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
I'm going to talk to you for a little on the power of positive speaking! In Numbers 21 there is an account of how God sent fiery serpents among the people because they murmured, and many times in the Old Testament, God's Word tells us of how God had to punish the people because they murmured.
I recently visited in a home where there was a pitiful invalid bound to a wheelchair by her crippled condition. We had a long talk about the things of God and His Love, and His promises, and His willingness to fulfill those promises, and through all of this I watched for some indication that her spirit was entering into what I was saying regarding faith, and especially God's faithfulness.
But evidently her mind was just on herself and her suffering, for every once in a while she would inject something about her condition, about the symptoms of the disease, and said it was slowly taking her life. She even made the statement that she'd be "tied to that wheelchair until she died": Just get worse and worse, she said!
Never have I tried harder to get some little word of praise or hope or faith to come from human lips, than I tried with this dear one! But it was of no avail! It was only complaints and murmuring!
At last under the pressure of God's Word which I read to her, she opened up her heart, and out of her lips flowed such bitterness and resentment that I wondered it hadn't killed her long ago!
There was a son in the home who drinks and he doesn't help with the finances, but does take full advantage of all the privileges of the home, especially the food, though he doesn't help pay for it. I had known for years that she carried this resentment toward him, but I never dreamed it was so deep and so terribly bitter.
As I sat listening to this tirade of resentment, my mind went back to years ago before this awful disease had taken hold of her, and I recalled how that even then she was always complaining, always worrying, and always negative in nearly everything she said.
At that time I talked to her about this and I thought of this little poem in connection with her, way back then I thought about it, for I've known her since girlhood. Perhaps it will fit some of you?
Worry worry worry
She knew worry was a sin
But each night she'd worry worry
Till her loved ones all were in.
Worry worry worry,
It was like a funeral pall,
If they climbed up on a ladder
She was sure that they would fall.
Even at the hour of midnight
She would steal from bed to bed,
Listen to the sleepers breathing,
Making sure they were not dead.
If they sneezed they had pneumonia,
If they coughed it was TB!
Till the very air about her
Got as blue as blue could be.
Late from school, why she'd get frantic,
Surely they had been kidnapped!
Every tumble brought her running
Positive their bones had snapped.
Every stray dog had the rabies,
Every tramp was a criminal,
Till at last it seemed it really
Wasn't safe to live at all!
When they were out in traffic
Her alarm was so extreme
That one night she slept exhausted
And she dreamed a worried dream.
Dreamed that God had grown impatient
With His child who worried so
For He personally managed all
That happened here below.
Dreamed He took her loved-ones
So she needn't worry any more,
They were all safe in Heaven,
None were left to worry for.
In her dream she was sobbing,
"Even though my worries cease,
Lord, I find I cannot bear,
It's such an empty, bitter peace!"
When she woke they were still round her,
All her children and her John,
Did it teach her? Not a lesson!
Happily she worries on!
-- And that certainly is true about this dear one! Now, this tragedy is nothing to be spoken lightly about.
When I was talking to her, I kept thinking of how great is the power of positive speaking: When we come out with God's Word in such a positive way and repeat It after Him and say, "God says it and I believe it!"
I am certainly not furthering any repeating of empty jargon, or simply clinching a mental attitude by vain repetitions! I mean, when you say, "This is the Word of the Almighty God and it cannot fail. I can depend upon it!" And, as I so often say, it's so because God says so! -- Then you'll know the power that's in the Word of God and that it can bring to pass miracles by Its creative power!
It is the Word of God and it cannot fail! Put your finger on some verse right now, some sweet promise, and say, "This is the very Word of God, and it is so because God said so!" Now, do I believe that such an attitude can affect the physical condition? Yes!
And I believe that such negative speaking can also affect the physical condition! I've read to you before from God's Word, "Whoso keepeth his tongue keepeth his soul from trouble," and this verse, "He that would see long life and many days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile." And this one is a favorite of mine: (Pray.18:21)
"Life and death are in the tongue." -- Yes, God is saying death can be in your tongue! And I do personally believe that the roots, that is the results of negative speaking go right down into the physical being. I don't know how, but I've seen it happen a number of times. I can't logically explain how it takes place, I'm no magician!
BUT I know that positive speaking regarding God and His Word and what He would do for you, does quicken the mortal body. Just recently when dealing with a lovely character, and she recognized the absolute truthfulness of God's Word, I asked her, after there was a prayer for her to be healed,
Now can you say, "By His stripes I am healed"? -- God's Word says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by His stripes we are healed." Can you make this positive statement because you believe His Word, "By His stripes I am healed"?
She said, "Oh yes, God said it and it's true! By His stripes I am healed!" And her face brightened up and she began to quote other promises in this positive personal manner. -- Was she healed? Yes, she was healed!
Meditate on these verses, "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent: Hath He said it, and shall He not also do it? Or hath He spoken it, and shall He not make it good?" -- Isn't that wonderful? In I Kings 8:56 it says,
"There hath not failed one word of all his good promises." And Ps.89.33, "He will not suffer His faithfulness to fail."
And to each one of you He says, "I will not fail you." And you can make a positive declaration and say, "He will not fail me! He will not suffer His faithfulness to me to fail!" -- Oh, God grant that His Word will have a preeminent place in your life!
When you are obedient to the Word, His blessings will be poured out. When you yield yourself to His Word, He'll guide your life daily and faith will just spring up invincible, and put a real shout in your heart!
Will you accept the comfort of these scriptures and believe that in Christ you can have a supply for every need of soul and body? And will you just look to Him and repeat after Him in His Word these wonderful sayings, and say, "It's for me!"
Positively claim them and positively declare them in His precious name, by His power. Amen. And remember, God's still on the Throne, and prayer does change things.