What Makes You so Smart?

Daily Reading: Proverbs 17

Scripture Focus:  Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.(Proverbs 17.27)

Devotional Thought:  Have you heard (or said!) the refrain, "What makes you so smart?"  It is usually said to a person who is sure he is right and wants everybody else to acknowledge it. That’s what Solomon had in mind when he extolled those who restrain their words.

Restraining words is a lost art, isn’t it?

I’m not sure when it started – perhaps it was with radio, or print media – but I know that by the time Crossfire aired on CNN in 1982, there was a move in the media to have people shouting down each other, crowding out each other’s opinions.  Then came FOX news and the 24 hour news cycle with all the programs with competing voices.  Something had to fill the air time!  Daytime programming now has The View.  The rise of the internet saw many more outlets for unrestrained “speech.”  Now it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, podcasts and blogs… even email devotionals!  Everybody has something to say, and it doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not.  Restraining words has become an archaic value.

With all the verbal competition going on, one wonders who is listening!  It is only when we are silent that we can hear what another has to say.  That’s one reason why restraining words brings wisdom.  I’ve always heard it said that God gave us two ears and only one mouth so that we would listen more than we speak.  Not bad advice!  Proverbs 17 ends with a fitting verse: “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent” (Proverbs 17.28).  Another wise person said it like this… “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Are you restraining your words?

Prayer: Lord, I know that "no human being can tame the tongue" (James 3.8), so I ask that you would empower me to restrain my words and to maintain a cool spirit.  Through Jesus Christ I pray, amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 10.1-11

1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.

4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God."

5 His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

6 He says in his heart, "I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity."

7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

8 He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.

10 The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.

11 He says in his heart, "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it."