Quick to listen!

by Kadeen Edwards

​Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow the anger.  ”Anger does not produce righteousness that God requires.” James 1:19-20

     James One is so rich in wisdom on walking through our Christianity. Which I consider wisdom that every Christian should have written on their hearts.

     One of the many verses that stood out to me is James 1:19-20 because I’ve had a couple situations that has caused me to feel anger rising up within me. “Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow the anger.  ”Anger does not produce righteousness that God requires. God has been reminding me of this last few days that my feelings may be right about a couple of situations that I’m facing, but allowing anger to rise is not the way to go about it.

     So I prayed about it, and God responded last night with such a simple solution, and it brought me such joy and peace because it makes me understand why we should seek God in all things first before going in our own strength. If I’m being honest, I had a lot in my mind that I wanted to say and as scripture says, none of it would’ve produced the righteousness that God requires. It is good to pray about the things that you want to say to people who we love and are members of our church family or leaders, especially when it involves their feelings, thoughts or actions etc.. I love when God speaks because I could not settle within myself Anything and I woke up in the middle of the night just so agitated and could not go to sleep. Something that I realize was that we can pray and hand things over to God, but if the enemy notices that it causes a stir or some kind of aggravation in us, it’s not necessarily that we pick it back up, but it might be the enemy, stirring the pot so we are constantly going back to that agitated or frustrated state of mind.

     I find repeatedly, that we have to release this things to Jesus. We lay it at his feet over and over again. What I realized this morning is that it wasn’t me that wanted to bring it back up, but the enemy who wanted to stir dissension and get me frustrated. He is known as the deceiver. His power lives in deceiving people into making a decision That would take us off the path of righteousness.

     It says in ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. The enemy brings us situations that will stir anger up because anger is a door. Darkness is the enemy’s dominion given to him by God. He has a right to any dark place in us. once we choose anger we open that door.