Slow to Speak, Quick to Listen

I like to think I’m a good listener when it really counts. I used to think that I must be pretty good at listening because everyone was always coming to me with their problems and wanting me to do something about them. I like helping people fix their problems, but giving sound advice wasn’t always the product of good listening.

I talk nonstop. I could go on about things that don’t matter for quite some time. The people in my household constantly remind me just how frequently I am making noise.

The more I think about how much noise I’m

making and how much talking I’m doing, the more I realize I am not listening.

I don’t think I’m alone in that.

I think most of us listen for something in a conversation to respond to. We are actively listening for something to question, to produce an anecdote, to analyze, to solve, to agree or disagree with. We are not listening just to take heart in what the other person is saying. We are listening to respond.

I do not like talking to someone on the phone. I will battle out anything you have going on over a text if it takes me a days before I want to answer a phone call from you and solve it in five minutes. This is because listening has become a hassle. I will blame that on my generation and the sign of the times.

I want to be a better listener.

How are you?

What’s new?

How’s work, home, the family?

I want to know.

I’m listening.

This is something so many of us can practice a little better today. Listen to listen and to get a glimpse of someone’s heart. You will learn more about someone if you just let them talk than interrupting them to put your ideas out there.

In your listening, God might be trying to tell you something through the person you are talking to. He uses other people to speak to us. If you believe He is speaking to you, He is speaking through you. Take heart in these little gifts of conversation and listen to them. God can use these intentional moments to relay divine messages.

Christine Cain says “God provides divine alignments for divine assignments.”

In your speaking, speak words of truth and of the Lord. Honor Him by being thoughtful when you speak, if we are quick to speak and slow to listen, we are NOT producing righteousness. You are not there to fix the problem on your own, God is already working. If anything, He may use you to give the words He would have you to say to the other person. Do not speak from your own will for their lives. Let God speak from His will for their lives.

“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God” - 1 Peter 4:11

Speaking with friends, strangers, whoever is a gift and makes us even more connected. Fellowship is important but so isn’t listening to the Father. Make sure His voice is the loudest. Let your spirit confirm before your mouth does. I promise that is something you will never regret.

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.” -1 Thessalonians 5:19

Be slower to speak, and quicker to listen.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. “ - James 1:19