I cannot tell you how many preachers I have heard recite these words over the years. All kinds of preachers from an array of traditions, cultures, and backgrounds. Sometimes this is the entire prayer offered right before the sermon. Sometimes it is added at the end of a much longer prayer.

It tells the congregation that words matter. What we say matters. How we say it matters. Why we say what we say matters. What we hold in our heart matters.

These days it would be helpful if political leaders would take a moment to recite this verse before speaking, tweeting, posting, casting a vote. At the minimum we hope that they would take the time to weigh the consequences, count to ten, or get feedback from a trusted and responsible source.

But many of our leaders and many within the Christian community don’t believe their words matter at all. They do not understand the power of their words. They do not take any responsibility for the harm they cause and don’t seem to care one bit if God is displeased with their hateful, racist, anti-Black, misogynist, homophobic, elitist, white supremacist rhetoric and messaging.

Unfortunately, this distorted and individualized concept of free speech—“I can say whatever I want to say”—is now combined with the ability to hide behind a keyboard, leading to destruction. We claim to follow Jesus, the Word made flesh; yet we often speak, type, or post as if words don’t matter, forgetting that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21).