Verse of the Day 4/5

Verse of the Day 4/5

 

James 1:19-20   Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

In reading today's verses it becomes evident that we see the opposite put into practice every day in the world, in the culture around us.  People, including us as Christians, tend to be slow to hear and quick to speak.  The same holds true for anger.  How many times have you been in a conversation where it is hard to get a word in edgewise.  While we're waiting for that opportunity to jump in we are formulating our response and not hearing what the other person is saying, in effect we're doing exactly what this verse is talking about.

 

I like the way The Message puts it (below), "lead with your ears and follow up with your tongue".  It is a tall order but it is sound advice.  Bonhoeffer warns, "He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life. . . . Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will even- tually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies."

 

Bonhoeffer's words are sobering, if we can't listen to our brother, will we be willing to listen to God as He speaks to us though His Word?  We may be just as quick to speak to God, offer our prayers which all too often are requests to fulfill our desires without thinking about what God's will might be in that situation.  We should pray, but it should be listening to God first in His Word and our prayers should be the follow up after we've listened.

 

Read the passage below, may we listen, may we hear, may we pray and then may we go out and follow the advice and be good listeners today.

 

 

 

Blessings,

 

Mike

 

James 1:19-25 The Message (MSG)

Act on What You Hear

^19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

^22-24 Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

²⁵ But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

 

 

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