Slow to speak!

This lesson sure has spoke to me over the years. Here are the verses:

James 1:19-20

19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Ahhh theses verses are very practical for the Christian. I can not count how many times over the years I have failed in these areas and had to pay the consequences for what I had done. What about you? The first thing said here in verse 19 is swift to hear. In other words quick to hear. My wife often tells me I don't listen!! How many times are we distracted by things that are not important like the t.v. from listening to those that are important like our wife and kids? Folks this should not be so. We can take it even deeper and ask our selves are we swift to hear God or do we let the ole' devil distract us with worldly things. We must concentrate on listening to those things that are most important! The second part of verse 19 says slow to speak. If many of us would take this to heart we would keep ourselves out of alot of turmoil in our lives. How many times in our lives have we spoken quickly only to regret what we have said??? If we would think before we speak we would avoid this problem. Slow to wrath is next or slow to anger. This takes much effort for many. Some people are easy going and getting angry takes a long time to build up. For others though they can fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. God warns us here if we have that problem. I have found over the years that one who gets angry easily makes bad decisions most of the time in their anger. If we can keep ourselves under control and let God guide us through the situation things turn out much better! God gives us the answere why we should keep ourselves under control in all of these areas... listening, speaking, and anger....they all go together. If we keep all of them under control we can produce the righteousness God desires from us....if we fail to listen, or speak when we shouldn't, or get angry easily we don't produce the righteousness that God desires in His children.

Doing these verses are not easy but when you are changed by the blood of Christ they are doable and should be a part of the Christians life!

Tom