listen much / conclusion

Monday, July 25, 2011 (7:29 a.m.)

Blessed Lord,

Do I need help with my listening skills? Or is it hearing? Definitely communicating effectively needs work. Where do we start Lord? Right here with You.

Mistakes keep happening. Feelings continue getting hurt. Misunderstandings run rampant. YOU are our answer, Lord. You. Your way. Your Word.

I find such hope in the Book of James. A younger half-brother of Jesus who wanted Your people to know how to live.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 (8:05 a.m.)

Most Blessed God, how I thank You for continuing to work Your will in my life. As I turn again and again to Your Word, reading TRUTH from ages past I am buoyed, heartened, uplifted, encouraged, reminded that this world is NOT our home. The things that happen to us here and the ways in which we respond to them serve to build us into people of strong character. Thank You Lord.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 (5:44 a.m.)

As I continue in my effort to present to You some semblance of a decent prayer, I ask You Lord to hold my focus here this morning to its conclusion.

I woke up using that same word as something I much too readily jump to. Again turning to Your Word, I find that even this tendency is addressed there. Thank You Lord. Every time I find something that I am prone toward talked about so long ago I am again affirmed that I am not in this alone.

The Message paraphrases one section of Peter’s first letter (4:12) to the Jewish Christians of his day as this, “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.”

I read Peter’s words and reason for writing them ‘to show us how to live well in a shattered and hopeless world’ and compare them with what I have been reading in James the last few days and again I thank You. Here are two different men saying very much the same thing.

James encouraged his readers to gain strength from hard trials. In what is now known as verses two through four of his first chapter he provides good counsel to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

While urging his audience to endure through hard times he also had this to say about listening. “Dear brothers, don’t ever forget that it is best to listen much, speak little, and not become angry” (1:19). He follows up his reason for this pronouncement in the very next line. “If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done.”

Lord God, how grateful I am for You and Your Word. My nature and habits are still so automatically tuned to reacting to most conflicts with the same tired and false ways of my childhood. Thank You for providing us with these examples of Your tried and true practices. I confess they are still far from my first reaction to problems. Keep working in me Lord. I love You so very much and I desperately long to be the woman You created me to be. Kind. Loving. One who listens much … Thank You Lord. I love You. Amen.

(595 words ~ 7:23 a.m.)