Every once in a while I read a scripture that just seems to jump right off the page. Just a few words that I have read hundreds of times before, shout at me and I cannot help but just stop and sit on that verse for a moment.
This is one of those times.
James 1:22 (NIV) begins with "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves..."
Is that actually possible? To sit and listen to the Word of God, yet be deceived?
But that is what James is saying here. If we sit, smile nod our head, and even know how to reply to, "God is good...." (all the time.) "All the time..." (God is good.) We can walk away being deceived.
I don't know about you, but that is not a place I want to be.
James is teaching us that listening is not enough, so let's continue with the verse and see what else he says.
"... Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." (vv 23-25)
Let's take a moment, pray, and ask today, "Lord are we only hearing your word, or are we actually open to doing what your word tells us to do?"
May our hearts be open to go beyond just hearing.
