SCRIPTURE:
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
James 1:19-20
OBSERVATION:
So succinct and simple – don’t let people, situations, or silliness, and stupidity result in a “stink ear,” being unwilling to listen, “lippy & loud,” by speaking before we think, and “going Waimanalo,” by projecting our anger on people.
APPLICATION:
Through personal experience in my life, with my wife, to people in public, and forgive me Lord in ministry to responding in madness; NOT GOOD, NOT OF THE LORD, & NOT HEALTHY in relationship, heart, and even emotionally/mentally. In the moment, it may feel good because we’ve been hurt or offended, and we are reacting; but there is no taking back the flesh and fury that is released and will be remembered. The fruit that comes out in anger will always be rotten.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, thank you for these scriptures that always reveal my tendency when hurt or offended, stressed, or irritated about a situation, and therefore convict me to walk in my identity in your rather that the flesh of the past that can easily surface. May the Holy Spirit in me convict and speak to me to stop, breath, and think of WWJD (what would Jesus do?). Thus, may my witness be of you and not the old John.
