Quick to Listen

Continuing our journey through the Bible, this week’s reading is from the epistle of James with a particular focus on James 1.19-20 where the writer, writing to a congregation that has apparently had some conflict, cautions them to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.” It is a caution appropriate for our era of social media and political division and a teaching that sounds like one Jesus might have given. Anger can be controlling and certainly divisive. We each get angry from time to time, but we need to notice when that happens and analyze why we are angry. We need to use prayer, love, and a spirit of joy and hope to quell our anger, and we need to listen to one another with prayer, love, and a spirit of joy and hope. We can practice listening in prayer, listening for God to speak.