What is Getting in the Way of Me Communicating Well?: (James 2 Verses at a Time)

Two things about the book of James are that it gets under my skin and it is timely.  Which is why I am still stuck on verse 20 and just adding verse 21 today.  The verses for this week are James 1:20, 21.

Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  So get rid of all the evil and filth in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save.” 

Anger is a serious threat to communication.  It doesn’t achieve what we want it to do.  At first, it may look like it helped get our point across but later on we find we damaged the relationship more than helped it.   Which is where the SO comes in.   Since human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires than we should get rid of all the filth and evil in our lives.  This will then help us accept the word God has planted in our hearts.  It is the filth and evil in my life that gives way to anger.  Think about it.  I am insecure or take something personal, and I lash out.  It is my filth that really caused the anger not the other person.  I am arrogant in my position and really want the other person to understand and agree with my position.  Once again, I have evil and filth in my life that needs to be dealt with.   Not only is the evil and filth feeding my anger, it is keeping me from humbly accepting the word God has planted in my heart.    It is salvation in one verse.  Confession followed by the humble acceptance of God’s word and gift to us.   This has the power to save.  


So today I am examining my heart to look especially for those things that lead to anger.  Is there jealousy, pride, insecurity, or blatant sin?   God has planted his word in my heart.  I want to be in a position to humbly accept it.  It has the power to not only save me but save all those who receive him.  It is from this position that I want to communicate.  I am not an expert on the issues of today.  I have opinions but even then I am not sure all of them are the opinions that God wants me to have.  What I do want is to discuss  and seek out God’s will with others.   I desire to ask questions and struggle to find answers to the issues of our day.  I want others to walk away from a conversation with me feeling loved but also one step closer to God whether we agree or not.   I am not good at communicating but I want to do better.  Hopefully by coming to the relationship right before God and ready to hear from him, I can begin to do a better job.  


Any thoughts to add?