listen, speak and live

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer points out in his most excellent book, Life Together, the first responsibility we in Jesus have to God and to our fellow humans is to listen. We must listen and listen well. If we fail to listen to others, Bonhoeffer states, then we'll soon be failing to listen and hear God. And in doing that, we'll end up with nothing left but our own "prattle".

After we listen well, and are really hearing what the other is saying, then we can speak. We need to speak with grace, yet hold nothing back that is needed. As we're in prayer over this, the Spirit can help us so that we won't necessarily say everything that comes to mind. Oftentimes less is more and more is less, both as to how long we speak and how much we say. We need to have a kind of quiet yet bold confidence in what we're saying, but all the time accompanied with much humility, received from God as Jesus by the Spirit works his humility in us, as well as the insight we have from God about ourselves.

And then we must simply live it out. Not many things are worse than those who say one thing but do another, who do not "practice what they preach." If we really believe something than at least we'll want to live it out. This should make us think twice about what we actually say, since it needs to be from the bottom of our heart and something we're prayerfully endeavoring to adhere to in our lives.

What words of insight or anything, would any of you like to say?

receiving and giving advice

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,
and the pleasantness of a friend
springs from their heartfelt advice.

Proverbs 27:9

It is wonderful to have people who care and are able to give good advice. I have experienced this here and there at important times, and continue to do so. And I want to be available to so help others.

I want to say here that it's all about relationship and loving others as God in Christ has called us to do. This proverb is quite interesting in expressing what makes a friend pleasant. It's when that friend really cares and takes the time to give advice in godly counsel.

Notice Paul's words in his letter to the Roman Christians:

I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Romans 15:14

We need to have faith both to give and to receive words of wisdom to help each other. Of course to be "full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another" is not something that is automatically true for all of us in Christ. I believe Paul was expressing confidence in the believers at Rome. And that this is for all of us in Jesus. But that it takes some living in the way of the Lord, along with learning in an apprenticeship kind of way. We learn from others who are living this out, and through them from the Lord.

We are to become followers of Jesus, but we learn to do that by following others who are followers of Jesus. This is a way of life that is cross-formed and like Jesus. As we learn to live this out more and more in our real lives, we will begin to be enabled to give heartfelt advice and wise counsel to others, based on God's revelation from Scripture and in Jesus. Just as I have received excellent counsel from others, particularly from one person recently. This person is gifted in counseling and is a blessing to a good number of people. But in a general sense we're to be present for each other in this, ready to both receive and give.

And as we do, it is pleasant indeed!

What might you add here?