James 1:19-27
My dear brothers and sisters, take
note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow
to become angry, because human anger does not produce the
righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all
moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word
planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so
deceive yourselves. 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.
Those who consider themselves religious and
yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and
their religion is worthless. Religion that God
our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans
and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by
the world.
My five year old is not the
greatest listener in the world. We often
remind him that he needs to listen and he quickly says that he heard us. We then have to remind him that listening is
not just about hearing us, it’s about responding and doing as we’ve said. This weekend I was guilty of not being very
slow to become angry when he just would not obey.
At church on Sunday, the
message used part of James 1 and how we are to be slow to become angry. One thing that was said was how thankful we
should be that God does not yell at us every time we fail to listen. This really struck me as I thought about how
I can get upset and yell when my son fails to listen over and over again.
God does not want us to
merely hear what is said, he wants us to act on it as well. How often do we hear the word but we then go
away and immediately forget?
My prayer today is that we
will really look deep at ourselves and make sure that we are not merely
listening to the words but that we are also acting on them.
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