But be ye doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James 1:22
There are two vital
elements to the life of a Christian; one is hearing the word of God and the
other is applying and/or doing the word of God… We cannot hear and be satisfied, the word of God must not only
be heard, but be rooted within so that it can sprout and bring forth fruit from
the lives we live and the examples we display to others… You deceive nobody but yourself when you
think that you have done enough by being able to say that you faithfully attend
church; you deceive yourself when you put on your Sunday’s best and display the
worse example of a Christian each and every other day of the week… Applying the word of God is what leads to positive
fruits and results in ones life… The word of God being heard without being applied is the same as
instruction being received and not carried out… You wonder why you fall short
over and over again, you wonder why your life continues to spiral out of
control as you attend church faithfully and the answer may be in your
application of what God is providing to you verses what you have heard and have
chosen to demonstrate… This passage taken from James so often reminds me of how
many people will leave a church service and speak of how powerful and moving it
was… You ask them how the Pastor’s sermon was and they immediately say “Oh,
pastor did a wonderful job, he was so powerful!” The next question you ask is
what was it that he or she preached about, and they don’t have the slightest
clue and began to think back to the service. How can we be of God if we do not listen and act upon what He
has given us? James is calling for
us to not talk a good game, but walk a Godly life. In order to walk a Godly
life we must first get away from ungodly things! These things could be people,
places, or habitats, it could be a relationship that you are struggling to hold
onto, a (n) addiction you just can’t give up, or a place that you find
comforting enough to please your earthly desires. When something is heard it is
not necessarily received, when it has not been received it will soon disappear
from your memory! When we are given a task on our job we act as soon as
possible to complete it so that we don’t forget it… As a child of God we must act as soon as
possible when it comes to edifying the body of Christ! To often we play church and wonder why we
don’t see any advancement in our church; we smile and clap, but never put in
the sweat and energy that God truly desires from us… Every person that
encountered Jesus on this earth was given a task to complete (the rich young
man) to show their faith and that they understood what the Lord has said!
Before he left the earth He said (to all the disciples) that we must take up
our cross, that we must hate our fellowman (those who oppose the gospel) and
that we must keep in mind that they hated Him first… Faith takes actions, it
takes commitment and it takes desire to be doers of the word and not just
hearers…
The proof is in the pudding,
the question is “how does your life taste?”
ALL FOR CHRIST!
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