Swift & Slow

"So then,my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God"

James 1 :19-20 (New King James Version)

Someone once said "The reason why we have two ears and one mouth is so that we would listen twice the amount and speak only half " :-)

Im sure all of us find ourselves struggling with atleast one of these categories..

->Swift to hear
->Slow to speak
->Slow to wrath

Listen to correction ... thats one of the toughest things to do... We need to be swift to hear. We need to be tuned in to the right frequency...to the frequency of our Lord... as He tells us and leads and guides us , we need to be sensitive to His leading . Not go all around in disobedience and then realize "ohhh I shud have just listened in the first place"

Slow to speak ! Every word that we speak must be subjected to the will of God. We are accountable for every word we speak. Death and Life are in the power of our tongue.

Slow to wrath ... This sometimes goes hand in hand with slow to speak ... Ever noticed how easier a situation is when a heated argument comes up that you just keep quiet and pray within your heart and His peace just takes over ? Its amazing . Anger is an issue that a lot of us struggle with . The Lord is telling us to keep our cool !.

All of us can keep our cool when things are going on great ...but the true test comes when someone for no reason just starts provoking us. Its then that we need to show 'we are His children"

The last line of the verse really hit me , "for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God"

Notice how all of these are visible actions that people will immediately notice 'swift to hear,slow to speak, slow to anger' . We wont have to say a word. Just being this way is itself a testimony of our Saviour living within us.

God Bless

Special Prayer Request :
The Lord has placed this burden in my heart that a lot of us are becoming slack and stagnant in our spiritual lives. Every day we read His word and hear His word... but its time we become doers of His word . We read in James 1 : 22 , "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" We can read the Bible in and out... we can read every book, every email ...listen to every message possible. But if we remain just hearers of His word we are deceiving ourselves . We really need to get down on our knees and surrender to the Lord , that He will help us become doers of His word in every aspect. The Bible says in Titus 2 : 6-8 "Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility,sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you" Please pray that we will rise up for the Lord and be doers of His word. That we will be all that is expected of us as per His Holy Word.