A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation
Comment: I find that the easiest way for me
to jump out of fellowship with God the Holy Spirit and my fellow brothers in
Christ/Messiah is to be a swift talker and a slow listener. When involved this
way my wrath over people and the topics at hand usually separate me from any
godly input. James 1:19-20 speaks clearly that if we are ever going to produce
the Righteousness of God in our daily shoulder rubbing with others, we must be
good listeners and better hearers. Here are some Proverbs of Solomon that
encourage us to be the child of God that He expects us to be. Proverbs 10:19;
14:17; 16:32 and 17:27.
Devotional: The
epistle of James is ‘critical’ as it is written to encourage everyone who reads
to be “doers” of the Word of God. The platform of verses 19 and 20 referred to
in my opening statement is laid by James so he can deal with the problem all of
us face and that is; living out the Word of God. Instead of just hearing it as
the many who hear but do not do. All over Christendom, especially here in the
United States of America we see and even know people who can quote scripture;
but they live worldly!
James reveals that this is an ‘overflow’ of wickedness
and a ‘filthy’ conduct, and it is a willful act of sin. This double standard of
the child of God does nothing to deliver our soul in the course of the day, nor
the souls of the unbelieving into the kingdom of God. We are to be meek (firm) and
humble (obedient) servants of God, this will not be true if the Word of God was
not implanted where God has intended for it to be; and that is in our SOUL.
This outward manifestation of one’s heart, hearing the
word and not doing the word is like painting a wet wall, only to see that by
the end of the day our effort to express truth from the flesh is worthless. Like
the paint, our expression of truth will slide to the floor and be trampled
underfoot by those who heard it. Or using James analogy, our image may look
good from the mirror, but the outward, practical observation to others is out
of focus.
The solution for each of us is not to give up as some
might! But continue to look, into the perfect Law of Liberty and implant the
Word in the soul. To stop being a forgetful one and to start being one who is
effective by doing what God requires of us all, then there will be blessing
because God will be glorified in the things we do.
Pure religion is ordained by the LORD for each of us
to do, meaning we are to DO what God says, faulty religion knows what to do but
refuses to do it. See Matthew 25:31-46.
No comments:
Post a Comment