Hello everyone and welcome to God Today. I am Ward Simpson coming to you from the rooftop of the Upper Room here in Jerusalem. What an exciting place it is to bring you today’s daily devotion. I want to remind you of the scripture in Proverbs 18:13. Here is what the wisest man that has ever lived or ever will live said. The man that God gave such an anointing of wisdom. Here is what he said, “Listen before you speak. Listen carefully to the matter before you answer. If not, you are going to be humiliated.” Now, that’s my paraphrasing, that’s my version of Proverbs 18:13. What Solomon is saying is, “Listen to the matter before you rush in and answer. Listen carefully. If not, you potentially could be humiliated.”
Let me tell you about a story of a preacher I heard. He was a pastor that liked to speak, but he didn’t like to listen. He loved to pray for people, but he just didn’t like to listen to them. One day, He called people forward for prayer and he started praying for people, laying hands on people, but he wouldn’t listen. This one young man said to him, “Pastor, please. I want you to pray for my hearing.” He tried to continue, but before he could continue to explain about his hearing, the pastor got his fingers and put them in his ears. Put them in the boys ears and he began to pray for the boy’s hearing. And he said, “You, spirit of deafness, I rebuke you in Jesus’ name.” He started to call down fire, he started to pray for healing for this boy’s hearing. When he was all done, he looked at the boy and he said, “How is your hearing?” The boy said, in front of everyone, “It is not till next Tuesday.” You see, he wanted the pastor to pray for his court hearing, not for his sound, not for his ears. That pastor was humiliated. If he had read Proverbs that day he probably could have saved himself the embarrassment.
How about you today? Do you find that you try to answer too quickly? Do you try to respond before you heard the matter out? You know there is always more than one side. The Bible says, “Be slow to speak and quick to listen. Even a fool appears wise if he keeps his mouth shut.” There are many times in my life, friends, where I have been saved the embarrassment, saved the embarrassment of speaking too quickly because I remembered Proverbs. Solomon said, “Be slow to speak.”
I want to encourage you today. Many of you are probably going through the same thing I have been through. Be quick to listen and slow to speak. I want to encourage you today in Proverbs 18. Don’t be embarrassed. As you go about your business today, whether you are at home, work, school, or play. Be slow to speak and be quick to listen. You will be wise in everybody’s eyes. Let me pray for you today. Father, I pray for everyone watching today, in Jesus’ name, Lord. That you would remind them of this scripture in Proverbs 18, Lord, that they would be a doer of your word and not a hearer – only deceiving their own selves. May they be quick to listen and slow to speak. Would you help them today in Jesus’ name. Friend, we love you here at God TV and we want to thank you for being a subscriber to God Today. Here we are in Jerusalem, bringing you this devotion. We want to encourage you and thank God for you. Through your support, through your subscription, it helps us take this message of the gospel of Jesus to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the Earth. We love you, God bless you. Until next time, have a great day, and please tell someone about Jesus.