Words be Few

So often we come to the Bible thinking we know all we need to know. 

We think that we have the answer. So instead of checking the accuracy of our answer, we just go find verses that can say what we expect them to say.

With every good intention, we take a verse completely out of context, simply because we are looking for it the wrong way. We come to the Bible, not searching for true answers, but searching for our answers. (Or sometimes the answers we have been fed and not thought to validate.)

Tonight my friend came to me with a question, a question that I thought I knew the answer to. I thought I was about to reveal to him some great piece of wisdom.

And while yeah, my answer was pretty well true, it wasn’t the whole answer. It wasn’t even the main part.

The verse I went to use to validate my point didn’t even entirely mean what I thought it meant. I rushed into my answer, and ended up taking a verse out of context. I messed up.

Luckily for me, my friend caught me on it, called me out. Pointed me exactly to the verse I needed to read tonight.

Isn’t that the way it always seems to work? The people we think that we are going to help, end up helping us instead. We try to teach and end up being taught ourselves.

Tonight, I was taught something simple, but so important. Don’t try to answer by your own wisdom, and don’t keep answering when you are wrong. The scary thing about words are, they can be wrong far more easily than they can be right. Therefore, don't be so quick to use them.

“Be not rash with thy mouth, and let your heart not be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore, let thy words be few.” -Ecclesiastes 5:2