MY EGO IS BRUISED—“I AM HURT,” MY OPINIONS ARE NOT BEING HEARD.
“…be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).
How do you communicate to others? The Word is vital and powerful and alive as we allow the Holy Spirit to implant God’s Word in us. We should receive that Word not with anger, but with meekness. In this verse James wisely advises us to reverse the process of “talking too much and listening too little.” Put a mental stopwatch on your conversations and keep track of how much you talk and how much you listen. When people talk with you, do they feel that their viewpoints and ideas have value? We need to be slow to wrath—selfish anger never helps anybody.
One of the marvelous characteristics of God is that He listens to us. He is available at all times to hear our prayers, to listen to our concerns and even to be touched with the nonverbal communication of our feelings. God does not keep office hours, nor does he require appointments. He hears Psalm 66:16-20. Check the passage out.
Jesus had a marvelous ability to listen. While His disciples were arguing and talking, Jesus was listening to the deeper needs of them and of the people when they encountered. As Jesus traveled around with his disciples He heard and saw needs which no one else seemed to notice. His authentic love for people motivated Him to listen not only to words but to nonverbal communication. He was constantly meeting people at a point of need whether it was the Samaritan woman at the well or Zacchaeus who was up a tree. He listened.
The Lord invites us to the ministry of listening. Most of us would be amazed at how much more effective we would be in our witnessing if we stopped talking and began to listen. The most effective means of ministry, for example, is responding to need; not dumping our load.
Jesus gives us some wonderful insights concerning the importance of listening not only in our interpersonal relationships but also in our relationship to Him. In using the analogy of our being the sheep and of His being our Shepherd, He said, “He goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:4-5).
In the same way in which a sheep listens to his shepherd’s voice of our Lord—we should be following Him day by day. We talk too much and do far too little praying and listening to God.
We also should be slow to speak; we should also be slow to wrath or anger! The Greek word for wrath or anger is “orge” which can be translated as anger, indignation, vengeance, or wrath. It is the same word used in Colossians 3:8 as one of the qualities which we should put off from our lives. The teaching of Paul concerning this quality of wrath or anger in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is very interesting, He writes, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The teaching is clear: be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to anger. James is saying to us, as you are slow to anger and to speak, carry that out in your daily living by laying aside all filthiness (rhuparia: dirtiness as contrasted to cleanliness) and the overflow of wickedness (kakia: evil or naughtiness). In short, our words and outbursts of anger reveal the true person within us. As we become more and more possessed by the Holy Spirit, we will increasingly enjoy not the overflow of filth, but rather the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
The key to the kind of lifestyle is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That counsel is closely related to his teaching on being “quick to listen.” If we are to receive the implanted Word of God, we must listen to His written Word, and we must have our receivers open to the revelation and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
