Learning to Live as a Christian
Tuesday’s Verse:
From James 1:19 ESV
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
God’s Holy Spirit teaches us in the smallest of commands. In today’s verse, James teaches us the posture of the Christian life: Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Receive before you react. Listen before you speak. Be patient before you are passionate.
To put it in Lutheran language, this verse instructs us to be people who live by hearing. Our faith comes from hearing, not emoting. We don’t learn to be Christians by expressing ourselves. We learn by being still before the Lord and listening to our neighbor.
We live in a culture where we are quick to justify ourselves, quick to tell others what they’re doing wrong, and quick to take offense. James teaches us that human anger does not produce the righteousness God requires of us because anger hardens our hearts against listening and instead pushes us to say things we later regret.
Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the Divine Listener. He listened to our cries for mercy, bore our sins in silence, and answered us with righteousness and not wrath. He has shown us mercy, so now we can pray that He would show us mercy by giving us patience, attentiveness, and kindness with the people we encounter each day.
✝️ A Prayer for Today:
Lord Jesus, make me quick to listen to Your Word, slow to boast before others, and slow to anger in my relationships. Teach me to listen with ears of love, and to respond with words of grace, for Your name’s sake. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
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