Before you answer that so hastily, I’ll be honest, in more instances than I can count, I can say that I have been guilty of being only a hearer of the word. Simply hearing the word does bring comfort but only temporarily. Yes, yes, you know what the word of god says, and what it is saying to you. You reaffirm yourself that you trust god, and you grab the bull by the horns because you can do all things through Christ which gives your strength.
However, you find yourself once again pushed to the ground, weighed down by yet another problem, situation and you can’t understand why. Why me? Why is this happening to me? Why am I going through this?
And then it happens; you find yourself fighting for your life, your job, your family, your career. You get discouraged, weary, frustrated, worried, and almost hopeless once again. Everything that you know the word of God has said to you, about you, and your situation is now like the morning dew. All dried up and has disappeared. You’ve allowed the weight of the situation to cloud your thoughts and mind that you don’t even see or recognize what the word of god has already declared for you. In other words, you forget! (Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.)
I’ve been there, more times than I can count. But there is always something or someone to remind me of where to find my help. So I’ll ask you again, are you a hearer or doer?
I’ll tell you, god is so able, so mighty, so strong, so loving, so merciful, and so forgiving. We are the toddlers that always seem to find ourselves in something, and God, the parent, has to come to the rescue to rescue us from our own selves.
James 1:22-25 states, be doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving your own selves. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Now that’s a word. I think this is as plain as it gets. However, this is some hard work here. In whatever we face God wants to write his words on the tables of our hearts, so that when we face our worldly problems we are not easily subdued or overcome by what we face. Being in Christ doesn’t free us from our problems, but God promises to never leave us; he promises that we are overcomers in Christ Jesus; he promises to uphold you and me with his righteous right hand.
God wants us to practice what we hear, and practice what we preach. The word of god written upon our heart are actions words:
Believe. Trust. Obey. Stand. Hold Fast. Don’t give in. Speak. Walk Upright
Yes, this world can give some mighty blows, however, god is the giver, the giver of all things. God is mighty in all that he does. Goes does all things decent and in order. Follow his hand prints in your life. God is not a man that he should lie, therefore we can hold fast to his word, for he is sure. I encourage you to practice this today in small areas of your life, and it’ll begin to show up in the bigger areas as well. I know this word is for me, but I know it’s also for someone who is struggling to be a doer of the word. I pray this encourages your heart and soul.
I love you, God loves you more. -BlessingsFlow
