Honest Thoughts from a Pastor

“Let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

The context of this verse tells us to avoid making hasty vows, especially to God. There is, however, some practical wisdom here. I’ll share it from my own personal experience.

Hurt people HURT people. I wish I could say this didn’t apply to me, but it has. A few years ago, life and ministry circumstances were painful. For years, I was accustomed to having a ministry voice, and then it was stripped away. It seemed as if God were taunting me, saying, “I called you many years ago, but you’re just going to take up space for the rest of your life.” That was not God’s voice. That was the devil! God still has a work for me, and the devil can’t stand it. No divorce or any other life change can hinder what God wants!

When I was going through the time of immense hurt, I lashed out in my writing. That would have been a good time for me to heed the Scripture “let your words be few”. My words did some damage, and I wish everyday I could wish/pray them away or undue the offense they caused. I can’t. But here is what I can do – I can use the lesson to help other people. As I am working with pastors and ministry leaders each week, I have a truck load of “what not to do” responses I give them. I can also do what another pastor with a similar story advised me to do. He said, “Matthew, just prove yourself.” So that is what I choose to do. I can’t undo the past, but I can chart a new path in my best days of choosing to please God.

In the day of “free speech” (meaning free as long as it doesn’t offend anyone lol), don’t go to social media with your anger and cries for attention. The results aren’t so great. Find some wise counsel who can help you process your hurt. Until then, “let your words be few.”