Shhhhh!

When I was awakened very early this morning, I did what most of us do when we have the opportunity to get a super early start to our day… I tried to go back to sleep! After laying there still fully awake, I finally got up and did what I know I should have done in the first place. I prayed. After praying for a while, I felt prompted to start reading the Book of Ecclesiastes. And while I have read this book several times, it seemed almost as if I was reading it for the very first time. Each chapter provided new revelation. It was so good, I couldn’t just read a chapter or two – I had to read it all the way to the end!

When I was about three-fourths of the way through the book, I noticed something I never picked up on before. Take a look at some of these scripture passages and see if you notice what I noticed.

I observed everything… (Ecclesiastes 1:14a)

But as I looked… (Ecclesiastes 2:11a)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 3:10a)

I also noticed… (Ecclesiastes 3:16a )

I also thought about… (Ecclesiastes 3:18a)

Again, I observed… (Ecclesiastes 4:1a)

Then I observed… (Ecclesiastes 4:4a)

I observed yet another… (Ecclesiastes 4:7a)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 5:13b)

Even so, I have noticed… (Ecclesiastes 5:18a)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 6:1b)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 7:15a)

I have thought deeply… (Ecclesiastes 8:9a)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 8:10a)

In my observation… (Ecclesiastes 8:16b)

I carefully explored… (Ecclesiastes 9:1a)

I have observed… (Ecclesiastes 9:11a)

I have watched… (Ecclesiastes 9:13b)

I have seen… (Ecclesiastes 10:5b)

I have even seen… (Ecclesiastes 10:7a)

The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes was Solomon.  He was the wisest person who ever existed. And just from looking at the few scriptures I mentioned, he seemed to do way more observing than he did speaking. And just in case we didn’t pick up on it, he spells it out for us in a few different places throughout the book:

As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. (Ecclesiastes 5:1a)

Talk is cheap. (Ecclesiastes 5:7a)

The more words you speak, the less they mean. (Ecclesiastes 6:11a)

Could it be that many of us aren’t wiser than we are because we lecture more than we listen, we try to explain before we ever explore, we share our opinion more than we observe, we talk more than we think, and we say more than we see? Let’s literally take a note out of the book of the wisest person who ever lived. Before we ever open our mouths in the future, let’s first determine if the only word we should be saying is to ourselves… Shhhhh!

Questions to Ask

·      Do you have a tendency to talk way more than you listen?

·      Does God even have a hard time getting a word in when you talk to Him?

·      How much wisdom do you think you could gain if you chose to be silent more and speak less?

Scriptures to Study

·      Ecclesiastes 5:1

·      Ecclesiastes 5:7

·      Ecclesiastes 6:11

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