Do you have burning lips, cracked lips, rough lips, sloppy lips, mushy lips, tight lips, crooked lips, wet lips, or yay!-… sweet lips? God is into kissing and into not only our getting kisses from Him and from others, he’s also interested in our learning. He tells us: “The wise in heart shall be called prudent. The sweetness of the lips increases learning.” (Proverbs 16: 21) Is it possible that some of us don’t know what we ought to and are bound because our lips aren’t sweet? Many Christians have infirmities and lament: “I don’t understand why I’m still sick. I have faith, I know and decree that I am healed by His stripes and I have forgiven others, yet sickness still refuses to leave my body. Why? Why? Why?”

Not having sweet lips may be part of the answer. Psalm 85: 10 says: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” How does one have mercy, truth, righteousness and peace without learning what paves the way to sweetness? No one can ever be set free without the knowledge of the truth that comes through having a teachable spirit and having the fruit of the spirit grown in them. It’s having all the fruit, not just some, coming forth from sweet lips that we and the world need.

I smile right now as I think of a relative in our family who always tries to kiss us when he meets us, and we always try to dodge his wet, sloppy kisses by turning our cheeks the other way, but alas! Sometimes we don’t do it in time and yikes along with alas! Hershey’s kisses, they are not!

Are there people in your life whose kisses you want to avoid, too? I feel fairly certain you do, but what about Christians you don’t want to associate with because their words aren’t sweet? I believe we must find a way through our prayers to love them into sweet kissing with us.

We have many divisions in the body of Christ and I believe a few us are weak and sick because our lips need moisturizing by the Word of God. I think it might be a good idea for us to store up on spiritual lip balms which have preserving power for the fruit of our lips, … Truly, the fruit of the Spirit is what will make the lips of God’s people sweet.

Sometimes when I asked God to lead me to the word for my day, He instructed me to turn to Proverbs 16, but I must admit, I gave little attention to the “sweet lips admonition“… I just skipped right over it. No wonder the Lord told His disciples they were dull of hearing… I believe I’ve had “dull lips,” that on occasion became “burning” and “rough” ones. Another alas and yikes! How often have we not gone to our brothers and sisters in meekness, but instead roughly spoke to them?

Look at Moses who was the most humble person on the earth in his day: He struck out at the people and what an awful consequence resulted from this: Yes, he had a “right” message, but spoke it in a wrong way which kept him from entering the promised land of peace, joy and righteousness. What about us?

Lips are not only to be kind and gentle: Some hard words, even wounds, are actually kisses to the soul as stated in Proverbs 27: 6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”… The lips that bring correction are like lemons that bring cleansing and a refreshing to us and we need all the kisses we can get, eh?

I’m hungering for some right now… even peachy kisses along with honey’s enlightenment. So come on, you with sweet lips: Pucker up and plant a big one on me. I need whatcha got!