"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
James 1:19-20
As a child of God; our number one focus is bringing souls to Christ… Despite how many various ways we accomplish this task, we all must first give an ear to the cries of the people with whom we come in contact… No matter how much we study the word of God, no matter how much time we spend in devotion to the Lord; the mission that we have will fail if we do not learn to listen to others… We can quote many scriptures from our hearts or minds; however, the scripture or the words that the person needs most to hear from you may not be spoken simply because we don’t know where they are in their lives… James reminds us today that we must be swift to hear… Every person you come in contact with has a story; every person you meet has a past and as a child of God you must respect the paths that we have all traveled so that lives can be touched and altered… People are turned away from God not because of His ways, but because of ours… We allow wrath to rear its ugly head in our lives when we confront an obstacle and so instead of showing our faith, we show how much we still need to learn and mature…
Growing up with 7 siblings (yes, seven), arguments seemed to be a daily routine within our household; whether someone was wronged, an item was taken or the channel on the television was switched; it was never a matter of talking through things but rather yelling out of control until our parents stepped in and took whatever we were arguing about away from us… Being rebellious and retaliatory are natural traits of human nature… To be able to refrain from what comes naturally is a testament to your faith and advancement in the will of God… Sin is natural; however, when we make attempts to avoid sin and live a life that is pleasing to God, we are displaying the characteristics that a child of God should display and we are living the life that James speaks of in our focus verses today… Self-control demonstrates how far we have grown in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ… James reminds us today that we must be swift to hear, but slow to speak (I have often been told that we were given one mouth and two ears for a reason)… I was once told that the reasoning behind this was so that we would speak half as much as we listen… If we speak more than we listen, James teaches us today that we are not walking in the will of God... In conclusion, listen more, talk less!
ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
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