Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
    and discerning if they hold their tongues.

• Proverbs 17:28

Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
    but the prudent hold their tongues.

• Proverbs 10:19

If only you would be altogether silent!
    For you, that would be wisdom.

• Job 13:5

“The beginning is found in the art of becoming silent.  Human beings differ from the beasts in that they can speak, but in relation to God it is to their ruin that they are so willing to speak.”

• Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations (from Thoughts that Radically Cure)

While the Scriptures talk about the fool or the wicked, even good people can fall prey to the problem of talking too much.

If we are always talking, we never hear what the other person has to say.  My wife would say that she was always being accused of talking too much, but she liked to listen.  Her “many words” were in promoting the conversation.  And to prove what she said, she could remember things that the other person said in the conversation that I had no idea had come into the conversation.

But when we pray, we often make our requests and then say “Amen.”  We might even have words of adoration for God and thanksgiving.  We might confess things, but we end the conversation and move on without listening to what God has to say.

They talk about how salvation is having a life-giving relationship with Jesus.  Every meaningful relationship that I have ever had involved two-way communication.  When only one person talks, the relationship is one-sided.

We have God’s Word, but when God speaks, He usually whispers.  And God likes teaching us patience.  So, when you finish talking the next time you pray, wait a while, maybe a long while.  Clear your mind of what you were asking God about, and you might just hear something.  God might surprise you with what He has in store for your life.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.