Do you see a man who is hasty? In his words, there is more hope for a fool than for him.
– Proverbs 29:30
This is a good warning for all of us. Just think about your day today, and tomorrow, based on this proverb, I want to encourage you to be extra careful with your words. Just to think intentionally based on what God is saying to us in Proverbs 29:20, to be hasty in your words is to be completely foolish. There’s more hope for a fool than for you if you are hasty with your words.
Proverbs 29:30 calls us to think before we speak.
So God is saying before you speak, before you say anything, be intentional today just to stop and think first, and spend even just a second or two thinking. Okay? Pause, and reflect. Don’t be hasty with your words and not just what you say to others, but what you write.
Certainly, the application of Proverbs 29:20 would be, do not be hasty in your emails. Do not be hasty to text. Do not be hasty to post this or that. Pause and really think about what you are saying. Are your words edifying? Are your words true? Are your words helpful? Are your words beneficial to those who will hear them or read them? And ultimately, are your words glorifying God? That requires a lot of self-control in our speech and a lot of intentionality to really think before we speak.
So based on this proverb, let’s pray for one another to not be hasty with our words today. God, please help us to be self-controlled in our speech. We think about James 3, how our tongues are a world of evil among the parts of our body, and like a fire that is out of control if we do not by the power of your spirit in us, keep our words under control.
Proverbs 29:30 calls us to be intentional, reflective, thoughtful, and careful with our words.
So God, please help us to be intentional, reflective, thoughtful, and careful with our words in every way we communicate them. God, before we say anything… even before we pray, we think about admonition from your word, to not enter into your presence and just start speaking without thinking. God, help us to be intentional as we pray, as we communicate with others. Certainly, as we write things down, or send them to others, post them before a variety of other people, and send people messages.
God, we pray that in all of this, you’d help us to end up speaking in ways that are good for others and glorifying to you, edifying and helpful and beneficial. And use our words to build others up today… To speak wisdom into others, to speak that which is right and true and good.
Prayer for the Yinuo Nosu People
Oh God, help us to speak the gospel today. Help us to be intentional, to speak the greatest news in the world to somebody around us today.
We pray for people who don’t have a Christian around them who can speak the words of life in Jesus to them. God, we pray specifically for the Yinuo Nosu people of China, this remote minority people group in China, 668,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus. God, please cause someone to go and spread the gospel. Give them anointing and power as they speak words of life to the Yinuo Nosu people so that they might be saved. Oh God, please be glorified through our words today. Help us not to be hasty in our use of them. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to your word. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
