Can’t listen with your mouth active!

” … let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger:”

James 1:19

“Quick to hear” and “slow to speak.” Hmmm …perhaps there’s a reason we have two ears and just one mouth!

If some people were paid on the weight of their words, they’d be able to retire right now to a South Sea island. However, if their payment was for the content of their words, they’d be sitting on a sidewalk holding out a cup for handouts!

There are some who talk just to be adding noise to the environment. They seek noise, value noise and contribute heavily to the noise of living. They’re just doing their part! Nothing helps us recognize the frustration of empty talk like sitting next to someone on the bus who takes seven minutes of detailed vocal energy describing how cute their cat is when eating its canned tuna.

But this isn’t just a devotional about ‘motor mouths.’ It really is about what can happen when any of us stop talking. It’s about listening. And the connection between talking and listening is that it’s difficult to listen when you are talking.

This must frustrate God. He has something to say.

He doesn’t jabber. He doesn’t ‘fill time’ with his words. He’s never spoken an empty word. Everything from his mouth is life-changing and history-altering. When He speaks possibilities are born and hidden answers come to life.

 “So it is when I declare something. My word will go out and

not return to Me empty,  But it will do what I wanted; it will accomplish

what I determined.” Isaiah 55:11 The Voice

But He often has a hard time breaking in. We shouldn’t make it that hard for God to ‘get the floor.’

 When Eli the priest was instructing the youngster Samuel on how to respond to God, he taught him to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant heareth.” I Samuel 3:9

It’s just wrong to tell God, “Listen Lord, for your servant speaketh!”

May you have joy and listening ears on your journey.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

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