This morning I read part of Elihu's impassioned speech to Job (32-34). If you're rusty on your Job history, Elihu is the kid who sits and listens to Job and his other three friends go back and forth for 31 chapters--

--Job's friends trying to get him to repent of some supposed sin and Job protesting his innocence and asking for an audience with God to prove it. (I'll give him this. The boy is patient.) Finally, Elihu has HAD it and can't stay quiet any longer, and he explodes.

And, the funny thing is, much of what he says is correct. He says many things about God that are spot on. But, like Job, he doesn’t have the full picture. And, ultimately, he's dead wrong about what is actually going on.

I was struck with the truth that we can speak eloquently and passionately and be so right about so many things but, in doing so, miss the overall truth, the big picture--simply because we don’t have all the information.

The result? Our ultimate conclusions are incorrect. That scares me and humbles me. My prayer is that God will help me to guard my tongue until I have all of the information and until He prompts me to speak His truth.

I must not lead others astray by my uninformed certainty. God give me discernment and wisdom and eyes to see His purposes and His Kingdom at work around me.