Power of 10 - Day 17

Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
The POWER of 10
Day  17 | DO TOO
TO DO
James 1:22
“But be doers of the Word and not hearers only.”


When you were young, did you ever hear your parents tell you something, you said “OK” and then didn’t get around to doing it? Perhaps it didn’t seem important right then, or you just forgot. Maybe they said: “Go straighten your room,” or “brush your teeth,” or “do your homework,” or whatever. The fact is, you didn’t do it, so they probably had to tell you again and again and then maybe even threaten to get you to move.

Have you ever wondered – or appreciated – why God provided His Word (aka the Bible) for us to read and study? He did it because He wants us to know what He thinks about various topics. He wants us to become more like His Son Jesus. He wants to protect us from making bad decisions and acting in ways unbecoming His children.

The reality is that we all KNOW more than we do and HEAR more than we act on. Every Sunday, pastors preach their hearts out to people who usually enjoy the services, but two hours later, they can’t tell you what it was about, much less what they were going to DO. They are “hearers only.”

In today’s verse, the apostle James – a younger brother to Jesus who did NOT believe He was the Son of God until AFTER the resurrection – is giving us an important directive. We must receive God’s Word as doers, not merely hearers. He tells us that we are deceiving ourselves if, after hearing the Word, we don’t DO too.
 
It was common to follow a teacher and listen to his teachings at that time. But if you followed a teacher, listened to his teachings, and DID what he taught, you were called a disciple or a follower.

Jesus’ final words in Matthew were to “Go and make disciples.”  We are all to be disciples and followers of Jesus, and to do that, we must be “doers of the Word.”

Prayer: LORD, help me to hear Your voice and follow You by doing Your Word that I hear and read. Amen.
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