Pure Speech

Zephaniah 3:1-13

[Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. To my American readers I wish you all a joyous holiday. To those of you in the nearly 80 other countries who have visited this blog, my most heartfelt wishes for joy and peace, today and all days.]

The prophet Zephaniah offers these words today.

"At that time I will change the speech of the peoples

to a pure speech,

that all of them may call on the name of the Lord

and serve him with one accord" (Zephaniah 3:9).

Not only will the confusion of Babel be overturned but vulgarities caused by hate, lust, racism, scorn and other human inclinations will be removed from our conversations. How wonderful to communicate with one another and with God in language that is uncorrupted. How blessed we will be to share the good news of the Word of God in words given to us by God.

Prayer: Gracious God, bless our speech with purity and our actions with kindness, all the days of our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, your Word made flesh, amen.