Silencing the Serpent: Conquering the Sin of Gossip

Posted on by thechristiantechnerd

Today was hard.

I had a moment where I could’ve gossiped. It would’ve been easy. It would’ve even felt good for a fleeting second, like scratching an itch that I know will only make the wound worse.

I was with two girls from work during lunch break, and we got to talking about another coworker—let’s call her T. They started talking about how T always shows up late and how the manager seems to overlook it. It was subtle at first, like one of those little threads you pull without thinking—but then it turned into a full unraveling. Her personal life. Her clothes. Even her laugh.

I opened my mouth. I was ready to add my two cents. But the Holy Spirit stopped me cold.

It hit me like a whisper and a warning at the same time: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying…” (Ephesians 4:29).

I bit my tongue. I literally had to sip my water to avoid talking. And then I changed the subject. “Hey, has anyone heard about the fundraiser next week?” It was awkward. They gave me this look like I was being too holy or too sensitive. I wanted to feel offended, but instead I felt peace. And conviction.

Later, in my quiet time with the Lord, I opened my Bible and I wept. I wept not because I messed up—but because I almost did. I wanted to. I wanted to gossip. I wanted to belong.

And that scared me.

Gossiping feels like a soft temptation. It doesn’t look evil. It doesn’t come with fangs or a pitchfork.

It comes with coffee and eye-rolls and shared secrets. But behind its charm is a deep demonic agenda: division, destruction, and death of character.

Proverbs 16:28 says, “A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.”

Lord, forgive me for ever being that person. Forgive me for the times I entertained gossip or contributed to it, even if I didn’t start it. I see now—it’s not about who started it, it’s about who stopped it.

And I want to be a woman who stops it.

But let’s be real, Lord. That’s hard.

I live in a world where gossip is currency.

It’s how people bond, how social ladders are climbed. Even Christian circles are not exempt. And that’s what breaks my heart the most. I’ve seen churches divided over whisper campaigns. I’ve seen pastors slandered, friendships ruined, ministries halted… all because someone thought they knew something and couldn’t keep it to themselves.

So today, I’m confronting it—within myself first. This is war.

Because the devil doesn’t come just to tempt us with big sins. He loves the ones that look small but rot us from the inside out. Gossip is one of them.

James 3:6 reminds me, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body…” And if we’re not careful, we start setting other people’s lives on fire, while standing there pretending we’re just holding a candle.

No more. I choose the narrow road.

(Please pray with me by TAPPING on the Image “Morning Prayer To Start The Day“)

God,


I come before You humbled and hungry for righteousness. I don’t want to use my words to hurt. I want to use them to heal. If I can’t speak life, let me speak silence. Give me discernment to recognize gossip even when it’s disguised as “concern.” Give me courage to change the subject, walk away, or call it out in love.

Convict me, Holy Spirit, whenever I begin to stray. I give You full access to my tongue, my heart, and my motives. Cleanse me. Refine me. Make me holy, even in my conversations. Amen.

I’m learning that resisting gossip isn’t just about what I say, but why I want to say it. If I feel better about myself by tearing someone else down, that’s not just sin—it’s a wound I haven’t allowed God to heal yet.

So now, before I open my mouth about someone else, I’m going to ask:

  1. Would I say this if they were here?
  2. Is this true, necessary, and kind?
  3. Is this building someone up or tearing someone down?

If I can’t answer all three with integrity, I won’t say a word.

I also want to do better about speaking for people instead of about them.


If I see a friend being slandered, I will defend her. If I hear a rumor, I’ll kill it with truth. If someone starts gossiping, I will not just ignore it—I’ll challenge it. With grace, but also with boldness.

We’re not called to be passive Christians. Jesus flipped tables. He confronted sin. And I will, too—starting with my own mouth.

If you want to honor God, guard your tongue. Gossip won’t make you more loved or more respected. It may feel good in the moment, but it rots your witness and wounds your soul. Choose the harder road. You’ll never regret silence, but you may regret every careless word.

Matthew 12:36 says, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.”

That verse both terrifies and empowers me. Because it reminds me that every word I speak matters. Every single one.

So tomorrow, Lord willing, when I face another chance to gossip—or to steer a conversation away from it—I will remember this prayer, this verse, and this vow. I will speak life. I will choose holiness over popularity. And I will remind the devil that he can’t have my tongue.

Not today. Not ever.

In Jesus’ mighty name….

Unknown's avatar

Published by thechristiantechnerd

22 year old college student! 100% Christian,! Will ALWAYS be a woman of FAITH. And my friends call me the "The Christian Tech Nerd" because I was hired by a very successful tech company in Silicon Valley, and I turned them down to be close to my family!

14 thoughts on “Silencing the Serpent: Conquering the Sin of Gossip”

  1. I’m sorry to see you still giving equal prominance to that devil. Jesus does not have to physically wrestle with this evil being and he’s not smiling at the contest because he paid an enormous price to redeem us.. Jesus is creator and the devil is created. Just one word from Jesus and satan would cease to exist. They are definitely not on friendly terms in a wrestling match because God hates sin and loves the sinner whereas the devil loves sin and hates the sinner who he instigates to evil. He plays with us to destroy us. I’m so sad seeing that picture.

    Like

    Reply

  4. You know not what you are talking about and it will be very painfull at the end of your life. The seprent silences his self iinside  and lays motionless so you thinnk you have defeated him. He will show the moment of death and collect your soul being that God cannot accept nay sousl in Paradise that are possed with demons

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. What I hear from your posts over and over is how hard and difficult things are. The same happens to me, but I usually say, “life sucks”. It’s the same thing. It is difficult for everyone, for someone seeking to live for Father God and King Jesus Christ it can be several times harder yet. We are guaranteed to get persecution, and the invisible attacks of demons on a daily basis. Many people like myself have clinical depression to deal with as well. Yes, life really does suck in a big way. Yet there are bright spots.

    I think the Preacher had it right in Ecclesiastes 9:9 “9 [c]Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.”

    The Preacher King Solomon who had 1,000 women finally had learned it to be best to have just one wife. I will add that it must be God’s choice of wife or husband. To marry the wrong person only buys more heartache, pain, suffering, even torture.

    Yet there is one special person out there for each of us. That soul mate person who God created just for us. That person who will be so much like us that they can understand all that we are going through. The person who is up when we are down, the person who lives through all the difficult times in life together with us. The person we love to help and support no matter what. That person who lasts until, “Death do you part”.

    I have learned that the marriage made in heaven is not the person who looks the way we would want them to look. It doesn’t have to do with outer appearances at all. The person who is God’s perfect choice for us is also the person who will over time become the most attractive person who we have ever met. The love, and the admiration of the inner person are what cause them to become the most attractive person on the entire planet to us. Old age will never change their attraction to us.

    They are the soulmate we were meant to be married to by God himself. Two halves who fit together perfectly as one. I quit looking for a perfect wife. I gave up, and just began to trust in God to bring that one perfect woman to me. It has been a very long wait. God has his own time table. All of these years he has been working on me. Preparing me to be the perfect husband for this woman when he brings her to me.

    Undoubtedly he has been working on her as well to prepare her, and to perfect her. Then the family unit with the children to be born in this marriage will be the most perfect family that either of us could ever dream of. All of our emotional, spiritual, mental, and affirmation needs will be met by that one special person. The gift of God given to us by our Father God.

    I now fully expect that she will come to me not looking the way I would have chosen, a different skin color than my choice, not the age that I expected, completely different than me in personality to keep things very interesting. Yet in everything that is of the greatest importance in life, and especially in our Christian beliefs, we will be nearly identical. There will be an unbreakable bond, and faithful devotion that will last a lifetime.

    So I have learned to never give up hope. To trust in God’s faithfulness and his perfect plan. And to expect the literal adventure of a lifetime as Father God finally unveils his prefect, and glorious plan for my life, and the life of my future wife, and our three children yet to come.

    The wait has been difficult. Life has sucked in a huge way. Yet everything that the thief has stolen it shall be replaced 7 times over in this lifetime. And if it requires for God to return 40 stolen adult years due to an unfair life of supernatural extreme suffering, then he will also do to me as it is written in the Book of Job. “His youth shall be returned to him, and his skin shall be made soft like a child’s.”

    I am holding Father God to these promises. He shall do it because he himself chose to make these promises and he put them in his Book the Bible. To fully trust the promises of God I consider to be the most sane and wise thing anyone can do. Crazy are the people WHO DO NOT TRUST AND BELIEVE IN THE PROMISES OF GOD.

    So expect great things Nerd. Your days of suffering, and waiting for what seems like forever will end soon as you trust in God’s promises. God has a perfect plan for your life. Just trust fully in his promises and accept nothing less than what is written in the Bible.

    As for me? I am excited seeing a glowing, shiny, warm, loving future starting as a handsome 24 year old man who has 64 years of experience and training inside of him. It will be the time set by Father God for my destiny, and life calling to ministry will be born, with a perfect wife, three children yet to be born to us, all of the comforts that allow a total focus on serving God and dedication to my family.

    I do not focus on my physical circumstances any longer. I live in this promised vision world in my thoughts and my emotions. My days of darkness, depression, and excessive suffering is over. I am pregnant with God’s vision for my life, and it is incubating inside my spirit. Soon it shall be birthed into this physical reality as “The Word Made Flesh” as Father God makes it a physical reality here on earth.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment