Fascinating. They're talking now about a "morning after" app for your smartphone. Apparently, this will allow you to delete any Twitter or Facebook message you've sent over the past twelve hours. Just in case you have second thoughts or delayed regrets.
Now who's going to invent a way to erase the words you wish you hadn't said from the hearts and souls of those we wounded? Ain't going to happen. There's no "morning after" app for the harsh or hurting words we say. There's only a "moment before" internal censor that refuses to "let any unwholesome talk come our of your mouth" (Ephesians 4:29). Damaging words are like bullets - you can't take them back once they're fired.
So I've latched onto King David's ancient prayer as a personal cry of my heart: "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3). Because my loose lips can, as they used to say in World War II, "sink ships." The reminder my wife has occasionally given me is probably true for all of us: "Don't ever forget the power of your words."
When we carelessly let fly talk that criticizes, cuts, diminishes or humiliates, we are leaving a scar on somebody. Often, somebody we love. All of us carry the wounds of hurtful words said to us - which we've never forgotten. And the one who spoke them has long since forgot.
It helps - and humbles - me to remember that there's Someone else listening to my thoughtless (literally, no thought given!) talk. Jesus. He gave this sobering bottom line: "Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36). I may forget what I said, but Jesus doesn't.
Those words "on the day of judgment" ought to make each of us stop and think. Big-time. I will meet my careless words, my sinful thoughts and my selfish actions at my appointment with God. Unless they've all been erased.
And it takes blood to do that. Jesus' blood. The blood He shed on a cross to absorb the guilt and hell for every sin of my life. In God's own words, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Total forgiveness, downloaded by crying out to Jesus.