Practice Being Speechless

Greetings, once again! I'm sorry to all those warm-weather lovers out there. But I'm GREATLY enjoying the cooler weather today--slippers instead of sandals on my feet as I sit down to blog today. But enough about the weather. . . let's get to the good stuff:

Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
What are the pieces of the “armor of God?” (Eph 6)
Ephesians 6:14-17 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And here's the question of the day:
Who is Luke writing to? (Luke 1)

And here's the reflection of the day:
A little bit of doubt goes a long way, don't you think? Take Zechariah for example (Luke 1:1-38). Had he just been able to keep his mouth shut, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble. . . like months of not being able to talk! Instead of soaking in the holiness of the moment, Zechariah's doubt overflows. What could have been stopped had he kept it inside, comes flowing out of his mouth like a babbling brook.

It makes me wonder: how often are we struck speechless by God these days? Not very often, is my guess. Is that because God isn't doing tremendous things around us or is it because we're just not paying enough to see what's going on?

Maybe we need a little bit more practice at being speechless. . . a little more practice at treasuring things in our hearts, as Mary did.

Here's a secret: preachers often preach to themselves, and in this case, I am guilty as charged. What a blabbermouth I am! But I don't think I'm the only one who needs to take some time to practice being speechless--a time to ponder and think over something; a time to turn over and over in my mind what God is doing in my life.

When was the last time you were struck speechless by God?
Allison