Don't rush off - think about it first

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

                                                                                       James 1:19   NKJV

We are all prone to forget this and let rip with our frustration but, that only leads to disaster. So why don't we take notice of the words here? There are two opposites that James mentions here::

Enduring trial - which leads to a crown of life and

Yielding to temptation - which can lead to physical death (v15).

The majority of us have two ears and one mouth, so act accordingly - we should listen much more than we speak. Mark Twain wrote: 'If we were supposed to speak more than listen, we would have been given two mouths and one ear.' Trying not to be rude, if you have a problem where you tend to talk more than you listen to people, then ask God to help you, and He will.

James was looking at opposites here. He wrote that we should be:

Swift to hear so this means do all we can to listen to what someone tells us or writes in a book. This is important that we do, because if we only hear a part of what has been said, then we will only give out that part to all we meet. The part we leave out may be the most important detail. Do you understand what I mean. We have to listen with accuracy!

Slow to speak As we have just seen, it is dangerous if we speak when we have only heard a little of the detail. Further to this, we can hear what we want to hear and straightaway challenge what we have just heard. Many is the time that people interrupt the speaker or condemn the author of a book, when they have not listened properly and don't have the full story. Again, this is dangerous and can lead to argument - which is not God's idea of things at all. Therefore we need to speak little and listen more and if you are not sure of what is said, ask for clarification. 

Slow to wrath In other words, anger can erupt from both sides when we have misread the other two in our discussion. Anger serves no purpose other than to drive a wedge between people. Words are spoken that cut like a dagger and once they have become public, it is too late to take them back. They will bring damage. So watch the anger.

You may have had something similar happen to you just lately and you are seething within. You may have felt talked down to in front of other people or in fact de-skilled because of the conversation. You may feel that you will do something about this and challenge the other person. However, you don't feel like a face to face discussion because you may be tongue-tied at the time. A telephone call may reach the same conclusion so, you decide to message or email the person. You can write down all you feel without interruption and really let rip. Let me say something here DON'T SEND THIS. It will only cause more problems for you. The options here are: Pray about it, Think about it, Speak to the person face to face or perhaps the best thing may be to forget about it, forgive it and leave it with God and move on. God will sort it where you might make the matter even worse than it is already. Food for thought?

Copyright 2025 Grahame Howard. 

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now
Lord Jesus, I have sinned. I ask you to forgive me and be my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my heart, fill me with Your Spirit and give me a brand new start today. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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