"SLOW TO SPEAK!"

James 1:19-21                   (ESV)
"19 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.
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and RECEIVE with MEEKNESS the IMPLANTED WORD, which is able to save your souls."




It seems that I always reference the timeline in my life of "before the brain hemorrhage" and "since the brain hemorrhage" for the last almost ten years.  No one can imagine the humility that is associated with being SO close to death and, in reality, not being able to do ANYTHING to assist in the efforts to keep me alive.  As I've stated many times, the only two physical deficits (or deficiencies) I have are my body temperature adjusted rather drastically and my "word-recall" isn't as great as it was before.  Although I had some great speech pathologists, they couldn't help me return to the prowess I had with the English language.

The latter is something I'd like to address today.  I was previously (before the Brain Hemorrhage) extremely "quick-tongued"!  Usually I found myself having to go back and apologize for something I had said, or worse, just not deal with my inability to "hold my tongue"!  Sure, I had read James 1:19 many times prior, but it wasn't until I slowed my life down considerably (post Brain Hemorrhage) that I HEARD THE SPIRIT speaking to me saying HE preferred to work at a slower pace than I was accustomed to operating at.  Now I can "SEE" that one of the biggest tools the enemy uses against Believers is getting us moving at such a pace we can't hear from GOD and act on HIS instructions!  The devil doesn't have to make me do "bad" things, only to try to do "good" things before GOD says HE is ready for them!  Can you imagine the children of Israel trying to cross the Red Sea BEFORE GOD parted it?  Psalms 27:14 has become one of the most repeated verses I use, "WAIT FOR THE LORD"!!!

When we allow the Spirit of GOD to speak to us, we generally have to listen for a "still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12)!  If we are moving at warp speed, we tend to be just trying to "keep it out of the ditches", not listening to GOD's direction.  My prayer is that I will be more interested in being "SLOW TO SPEAK" and being quick to hear and RECEIVE with MEEKNESS the IMPLANTED WORD!!