Got a Good Salt Shaker?

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:6

Back in the day, salt was used for a lot of things, but mainly was a preservative or a flavor enhancer. However, it could easily become contaminated and lose its effectiveness as well. Things like dust, or mud or water could greatly decrease, or even ruin salt’s usefulness.

So salt, although resilient and very useful, needs to be taken care of as well.

As long as it is kept pure, it will remain effective.

As Christians, Jesus tells us we are meant to be salt and light. We are not meant to save up or hoard the salt, but to actually use it and BE it. We have a responsibility, and a privilege of replenishing our salt stores daily with our Savior, making sure he is keeping them pure, and allowing Him to guide us in how to use it to edify, exhort and encourage other people.

We are always to season our speech with salt and always be gracious in how we speak to others. I think it’s fitting to mention that the Lord didn’t tell us to just do this….sometimes.

How do we know how much salt to add into each meal we deliver? By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, friends. If we aren’t spending time with the Lord in our relationship with Him and our prayer life (where we actually commune with Him), we may start to hear our own voice and that’s when mistakes in regard to salt start to happen.

Our tongues in particular, can be very dangerous ~ I know there have been many things that have come out of my mouth in life that I did not even bother to season with salt first. There have been times where I dumped the entire shaker on top of my words as well, and that wasn’t palpable at all either. THAT leads to poor health!

These are the times that it becomes obvious to me quickly that I have either lost my saltiness, am taking the shaker into my own over-eager little hands, or am utterly failing to utilize it in a graceful way.’

No matter how hungry someone is, they aren’t going to eat a plate full of stuff that’s more salt than anything else. At the very least, it’s not going to go down the hatch very well.

And if it’s totally bland? They might partake of it, but if given a choice, they will go for the one that has some zest to it.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13

So do we simply flavor our speech in ways that compete with all the gooey goodness that’s out there completing for the taste buds and cravings that people possess? No.

Big, big “no”.

But that doesn’t get us off the hook when it comes to providing a tasty meal for those that we serve either.

People may resist the truth, but they will really resist the truth when we don’t remember to include the salt and the grace!

And yes…there have been times that the salt I was using had become less effective because I allowed it to get contaminated ~ sometimes without even realizing it until later.

It’s important for the people who deliver meals to make sure things are sanitary, along with tasty.

• Let us not save up the salt and hoard it, friends.
• Let us not withhold it from others.
• Let us not get lazy and forget to use it, while also not simply dumping it all over the place haphazardly.
• Let us ask the Lord to protect our salt stores and replenish them daily so we can actually allow them remain plentiful, effective and useful.
• Let us remember where the salt comes from and what HIS purpose is for it.

But at the same time, let us remember who the One is that really and truly saves. He made us to be salt AND light so that HE may be seen and absorbed by everyone around us.

So that people will WANT to seek out the source ~ Jesus.

Let’s allow Him to guide us in how much to shake out in regard to each and every situation.

His grace is enough.

“Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? “My soul refuses to touch them; They are like loathsome food to me.” Job 6:6-7

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29