Monday, October 29, 2018

Do not merely listen


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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