"Please Take Notes"

Scripture: "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." -James 1:19-20, NIV

Everyone that is receiving today's devotional, remembers the days of school. Whether when you are in elementary school, middle school, high school, college, or seminary, we have all been there. There were a couple of things that our parents told us in order to be successful for school. Those two things were to ask questions if you did not understand something and to take notes so you can use those to study, do your homework, and prepare yourself for your tests. You can tell the good note takers from the bad note takers. The good note takers are the ones bad note takers ask to borrow their notes and copy them. Within the Kingdom of God, our Heavenly Father is encouraging you and I to take some notes from Him. How can I make such a claim? As most preachers would say, I am glad you asked! Let's check out today's main scripture to view the notes we need to take as Christians.

Today, our main scriptures comes from the book of James. According to scholars, James is viewed as probably the oldest book in the New Testament, written as early as 45 A.D. As James wrote this five chapter book, he dealt with some serious things. Some of these things include trials and temptations, forbidding favoritism, faith and deeds, taming of the tongue, submitting yourselves to God, and boasting about tomorrow. Within this introductory chapter, James discusses trials and temptations (verses 1 - 18) and listening and doing (verses 19 - 26). Today's main scripture falls under the category of listening and doing, thus providing us the thing we can do: take notes.

James begins this set of scripture by saying, "My dear brothers, take note of this". With this being said, the tone is set. James is letting you and me know that there are notes we must take. Let's dig a little deeper here. He goes on to say, "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry". If I was to do a straw poll of everyone reading on today, I bet we can all say that we are struggling with at least one of these things. On today, God is asking you to please take notes on being quick to listen. Many of our non-essential arguments occur when both parties are trying to talk and one is not trying to listen. If you are slow to listen, then you are definitely slow to speak. One thing I have realized in this life of mine is that God gave you two ears and one mouth. What's the point here? He expects you to listen twice as more as you talk! Brothers and sisters, take time to listen to your spouse/mate/child/friend/co-worker and quit writing them off so quick! Take time and digest what God is saying to you through them! You never know, God may have a blessing for you through them! The last thing James mentions here is "slow to become angry". If truth were told, some of us will go off the deep end quick when it comes to a certain subject or something of a sensitive nature to us. James is employing you and I to take note of being slow to become angry. James further clarifies why we should be slow to becoming angry.

James concludes the scripture for today letting us know that "for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires". In other words, your anger cuts off the blessings God wants to bless you with! Husbands and boyfriends alike, we know that there have been times where our wife/lady was ready to love on us and next thing you know, we came out of our face really wrong, and next thing you know, those plans of being loved on was cut really short! What's my point? My point is that God is like the woman who wants to love you! If you allow your anger to dictate what goes on in your life, you may be headed down a road of failure and potential trouble! When you are about to go off or get mad about a circumstance, ask yourself a question: Is it something really getting mad about? Is it worth blocking the blessings God wants to give me?

In closing, we ought to be thankful for the good note takers at school. They helped us get a long way, get you through grade school, and for some of us, through our collegiate careers. We ought to also be thankful to James. He cared enough about us to provide us some worthwhile notes to live by. With the notes James has given you on today, are you going to apply them and pass life with flying colors or tuck them away and fail? You be the judge!