James 1:19 ESV Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; As the Turkish proverbs goes, if speaking is silver, listening is golden. Speaking is easy; listening is hard. James calls us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We have two ears and one mouth. This suggests that we should listen about twice as much as we speak! We have a good record of Jesus's words, but he is the ultimate listener too, to respond appropriately to his hearers. James isn't just telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or even to seek to emulate Christ. He reminds us that we're brethren. We're adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus. Anger isn't necessarily wrong. In our anger we're not to sin. We're not to be quick tempered. 'Abba God, we praise you for adopting us into your family. Please help us to display the family characteristics: to be good, temperate listeners. For the glory of your name, a...
Psalm 143:8 ESV Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. What’s the first thing we do when we wake up? Is it to scroll our phones and check our notifications? Or is it to check in with God through His word, without technological distractions? If we trust in the Lord, we ought to long to hear from Him first thing in the morning. We need daily reminders of His unfailing love. His mercies are new every morning, thankfully. Every day, we need God to direct us. We might be in a groove (or a rut!) of regular practices, yet we should be open to being flexible to whatever life throws at us and what God has for us. He can help us deal with anything that seems to attack us. Morning by morning, we should lift our souls to the Lord. We are to wait in expectancy up Him. He will never fail us. ‘Dear Lord, we come to You this morning expectant of Your goodness to us afresh this day. Please ...
James 1:19 NLT Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. In Christ, we’re all one big spiritual family. We’re all siblings, adopted by our Father God through faith in Jesus. We need to understand how we ought to function as God’s family. Firstly, we must be quick to listen. A famous quote says that we’ve got twice as many ears as mouths, so we should listen twice as much as we speak! Most of us find it hard to listen, and if we do, we listen to respond, rather than listen to understand and appreciate where the other person’s coming from. Secondly, we should be slow to speak. Lots of us are opinionated and like to be heard. Yet James is urging us to think twice before opening our mouths: is it necessary? Finally, we’re to be slow to get angry. Lots of things can irritate and annoy us. We should pause before venting, maybe we just need to be philosophical about ...
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