Matthew 26:62-63<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd the high priest arose and said to Him, \u2018Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?\u2019 But Jesus kept silent\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a discipline we need to practice, and that\u2019s the discipline of silence. Even when there\u2019s pressure for us to speak, we don\u2019t have to speak because of pressures. This discipline is not easy to manage but it can be cultivated as we walk with God\u2019s Spirit. Provocations will come from all sides. External pressures will arise. Pressures from within you will be clamoring for you to speak up, to make your opinion heard, to make your self-defense. However for those who have mastered this discipline, they never yield to the pressures to speak because they only speak when heaven gives them permission to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus lived under this discipline of silence. He never spoke because He wanted to speak or because people expected Him to speak. Jesus always and only spoke when the Father permitted Him to speak. He had full control of His words, and He could never be intimidated to speak when He didn\u2019t want to. That\u2019s the life we need to live. That\u2019s the sign of the spiritually mature believer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLord, I must overcome the temptations to talk because people want me to talk. Lord, teach me the discipline of quietness, even when everything is demanding that I talk. May I talk only if and when You expect me to. In Your name, I pray. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 26:62-63 \u201cAnd the high priest arose and said to Him, \u2018Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?\u2019 But Jesus kept silent\u2026\u201d There is a discipline we need to practice, and that\u2019s the discipline of silence. Even when there\u2019s pressure for us to speak, we don\u2019t have to speak because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4564,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4562\/revisions\/4564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}