12-26-2018, 11:11 AM
OUR DAILY MANNA DEVOTIONAL
WEDNESDAY 26TH DECEMBER, 2018
UNIVERSITY OF LISTENING!
BASIC SCRIPTURES: JAMES 1:19-20; 1SAMUEL 13:8-14
Respect is not commanded by how loud your voice is or how repetitive it is, but by the air of authority backing your words. This authority is developed by simply obeying today’s 1st scripture: Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. Oh, this difficult university of listening! Listening gives you an excellent opportunity to learn. A wise man once said
, ‘Think before you speak, and before you think, read.”
Don’t just read books, read people and read situations! The quality of your life is dependent on the quality of your words and the quality of your words depends on the quality of your thoughts!
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply.” (Stephen R. Covey). Listening is a magnetic and strange thing; a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move towards. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand! I remember Ed Cunningham: “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer”
So to win people over as 2018 ends, LISTEN MORE! No wonder Malcom Forbes opined: “The art of conversation lies in listening.” Then M. Scott Peck makes us guilty sometimes: “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” Sounds familiar? As 2018 ends, Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath! Never let anger control you, rather control anger. How? By listening and reading the situation and people involved and then speaking constructively, creatively and with comfort (THE “3 Cs”)!
If you have nothing constructive to say, keep quiet and listen. If God has not given you a word to speak that can lighten someone’s burden, keep quiet and listen. Also listen a lot to God as the year ends! Create quiet times just to LISTEN TO HIM! Close with this: “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less” – Diogenes. So in this hard “university” of listening, may you NEVER repeat your class! May you not fail God and man in 2019! LISTEN MORE!
_THE BEST NEW YEAR GIFTS: Help someone to do the next 21-day 2019 January fast. Give out the new 2019 ODM edition and “WAR AGAINST HAMAN – 14” booklets as SPECIAL gifts. CHILDREN’S ODM AND FRENCH ODM are available NOW!_
PRAYER POINTS:
Take a song of praise to God.
1. Pray about today’s word as it has ministered to you.
2. Father, I receive grace daily to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath in Jesus name.
3. I receive strength and wisdom to listen right, think right, and speak right at all times in Jesus name. I shall not fail God nor man in this university of listening! Pray about the last days of this year!
BY BISHOP (DR) CHRIS E. KWAKPOVWE (CEK)
_PUBLISHER/WRITER OF ODM_
WEDNESDAY 26TH DECEMBER, 2018
UNIVERSITY OF LISTENING!
BASIC SCRIPTURES: JAMES 1:19-20; 1SAMUEL 13:8-14
Respect is not commanded by how loud your voice is or how repetitive it is, but by the air of authority backing your words. This authority is developed by simply obeying today’s 1st scripture: Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. Oh, this difficult university of listening! Listening gives you an excellent opportunity to learn. A wise man once said
, ‘Think before you speak, and before you think, read.”
Don’t just read books, read people and read situations! The quality of your life is dependent on the quality of your words and the quality of your words depends on the quality of your thoughts!
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply.” (Stephen R. Covey). Listening is a magnetic and strange thing; a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move towards. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand! I remember Ed Cunningham: “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer”
So to win people over as 2018 ends, LISTEN MORE! No wonder Malcom Forbes opined: “The art of conversation lies in listening.” Then M. Scott Peck makes us guilty sometimes: “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” Sounds familiar? As 2018 ends, Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath! Never let anger control you, rather control anger. How? By listening and reading the situation and people involved and then speaking constructively, creatively and with comfort (THE “3 Cs”)!
If you have nothing constructive to say, keep quiet and listen. If God has not given you a word to speak that can lighten someone’s burden, keep quiet and listen. Also listen a lot to God as the year ends! Create quiet times just to LISTEN TO HIM! Close with this: “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less” – Diogenes. So in this hard “university” of listening, may you NEVER repeat your class! May you not fail God and man in 2019! LISTEN MORE!
_THE BEST NEW YEAR GIFTS: Help someone to do the next 21-day 2019 January fast. Give out the new 2019 ODM edition and “WAR AGAINST HAMAN – 14” booklets as SPECIAL gifts. CHILDREN’S ODM AND FRENCH ODM are available NOW!_
PRAYER POINTS:
Take a song of praise to God.
1. Pray about today’s word as it has ministered to you.
2. Father, I receive grace daily to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath in Jesus name.
3. I receive strength and wisdom to listen right, think right, and speak right at all times in Jesus name. I shall not fail God nor man in this university of listening! Pray about the last days of this year!
BY BISHOP (DR) CHRIS E. KWAKPOVWE (CEK)
_PUBLISHER/WRITER OF ODM_