Before we speak

Let me not, I pray, show partiality to anyone; Nor let me flatter any man.

- Job 32:21

Young Elihu shows a lot of wisdom in his speech. We wants to be careful not to offends Job or his friends. He wants to keep his own bias out of the discussions. So he does something I think we all should do especially in this age of instant worldwide communication.

What does he do first? He asks God to guide His words. Before Elihu gets in the conversation he asked God to keep him from being partial to either side and the not let him flatter anyone.

Elihu was seeking to use his words wisely. He was looking to speak the truth in love.

Our instant communication world has just about ruined the concept of think before you speak or think before you hit enter or think before you send. I wish we could have any overall filter for Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and email and Skype and all those things what would delay our posts for even 2-3 minutes. We seem to have lost the capacity to do that on our own.

But there is still prayer. Prayer would really be the ultimate filter if we would just use it.

What if every time we prepared to speak or text or post on Facebook we prayed ‘Lord, keep me from flattery and keep me from showing partiality to anyone?’ It’s not only that specifically, but what if we had Elihu’s attitude of praying before we speak.

I wonder how our Facebook feeds would look? I wonder what out texts would say? 

What kind of difference would it make?