Thursday, October 25, 2007

Slow versus Quick

“My dearly loved brothers, understand this: everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” (James 1:19 CSB)

Some of us are slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to get angry. Or so it seems at least. Depending on how a day may be going, we can have a short fuse, and it doesn’t take much to set us off. Sometimes when the heat is on the pressure builds to the boiling point. So, how do we get to the point where we can live out what James says? What would that look like?

A couple of verses beyond James 1:19 we read, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only.” The word of the Lord was not meant just for reading, and understanding, and enjoying. It was meant also for doing. When we incorporate the principles taught in the word, such as love God with everything in you and your neighbor as yourself, and such as “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding,” and we actually live according to those precepts, we discover what James called “the perfect law of freedom.” This freedom then enables us, even in the pressure-packed situations, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

In your day today, what principles would God have you to live out?

Lord, Show us today the teachings that You would have us to incorporate into our lifestyles, so that we may live according to Your perfect law of freedom. Amen.

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