Devotion for Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
James 1:22-25
My Commentary:
Today’s verses are about as practical as you can get. James tells his readers to be all about application of truth and not just knowing the Truth of God’s Word. It really does take both.
He then illustrates his point with the idea of a man looking in a mirror. The mirror is a great tool. It helps us know what to change about our appearance every day. We wake up, look at ourselves in the mirror and make the appropriate changes. When you leave though, things change. Eventually, you’ll need to look in the mirror again to help you make those appropriate changes. Have you ever looked in a mirror and noticed a piece of the spinach from lunch between your front teeth? That’s so embarrassing! “Why didn’t someone tell me?”, you ask. The mirror helped you see the brutal reality of your appearance. It would be illogical for you to say, “Oh, I looked in the mirror last week and I looked fine then, so I’m sure I’m good now.”
James says that the Bible is like that. It helps us to see what changes need to be made. It was intended for us to read it and to do something about what we read! It was intended to be read as much as we need it, and if we were honest we need it quite often.
Mirrors help us see what need’s to be changed. Mirrors don’t help us until we respond to what we see.
Mirrors should be referred to often. This is true of the Bible!
Application:
There is often a big difference between what we know and what we do when it comes to the Bible. Has the Bible pointed out an area in your life that needs attention? What changes need to be made? What do you need to do today?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
On Wednesday in my small group we were talking about ways we can collide with God. Someone said reading God’s word, the bible. I said exactly but when we read it we can easily read it and do nothing about what we just read, it can sit im our heads like untouched mush. I asked if we were all being honest, how many of us read the bible everyday. Out of my 7 girls I kept my hand raised and so did another girl. I then asked her and myself, out of everyday that we read the bible do you get something out of it or does it just sit there? She and I had to put our hands down because I read the bible everyday, but not everyday am I taking what I read and being a doer of the word. I know I need to work on this because I’ve found when I was being a doer of the word and really applying what I read and learned to my life, it really does make a difference! So why don’t we do this all the time? Good question.. Easier said then done. By my little survey on Wednesday it looks like this is something we all need to work on!
Something that helps with this is always starting off with prayer before you do your devotions/ read the bible. Ask God what do you want me to learn from this, and how can I use it in my life, or show it to someone else to impact their life? I tend to forget to do that sometimes. Not only will this help our prayer lives, but it will help us to be doer of the words because we’re telling God we want to be and have willing hearts!
Praying this morning that God will make me a doer of the word I read and give me the wisdom to use it wisely! Have a great day at school everyone! See you all tonight at H2O! 😀
This is exactly where a youth pastor hopes his students get to. This is still something I struggle with. There is a struggle to be disciplined enough to not only read the Bible every day, but to do the Bible every day. This post was a big encouragement today Melanie.
I think this is something all of us in H2O need to work on! I hope I can be a good influence and an encourager to all the teens with this! It’s so important isn’t it?
Hey Melanie in our small group it was tristian who said read the word of the lord (the bible).
To be honest theres alot of stuff that got my attention in the bible but I can’t remember them…oh never mind I remember now hehe!! :). Well if you don’t pray to god and and you just expect things to happen then that’s not gonna get you anywhere. The bible says if you pray to god he will give you what you want. My mom prays to god everyday and she always gets what she wants she always prays and then gets her prayers answered. I used to think that I could wish for something and then the next day I would get it but, I was like way off I found out you need to pray to god for anything you want but he might not always give it to you…so now just like my mom I pray all the time 😀 and see ya tonight to Melanie love ya!!! And you did great you always do!!!! 🙂 <333
Today this morning, something tht points out to me in the bible us just like Mafalda, like it’s really important to have a relationship w/ God. Because Jesus went and died on the cross and shed his blood just for me!!!! And then rose 3 days later.
Thts amazing!!!!! 😀
the first thing that i thought of after reading the application(i still read everything else!) was getting into his word more.gtg 2 school! oh well! ill tell u guys the rest ltr.
Great job everybody!!:). What I got out of this is we can be doers of the word or hearers of the word. There are a lot of us that are hearers maybe its telling you to tell your friends about Jesus and maybe your just scared to tell them or something else. But we need to be doers of the word if the Bible sees tell your friends you tell your friends!:)
Great point Blake…
Also- as we are “doers” of the Word it helps people want to listen to us when we speak because we’ll have the reputation that we aren’t hypocritical…
This passage is really good! “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” I think this means that we could go to church and read the bible all our lives, but it doesn’t do any good unless we apply what we’ve learned and start living it! If we don’t apply the bible to our lives, we’re only deceiving ourselves! I’m guilty of doing this all the time, but I think I have gotten a lot better over the summer & I still have a long way to go!
I hope everyone had a good day at school, see you tonight! 🙂
These verses are so important! Idk how many times i read the bible and then afterwards i get nothing out of it.. If we aren’t even truely reading the word of God to get something out of it then whats the point? We have to be hearers and doers of the bible everytime* we get into God’s word! Something that the bible has pointed out in my life that i need to change is that even when temptations are thrown my way, I have to know God doesnt want me to go along with them. School is filled with temptations (good & bad) and sometimes its difficult to say no to everything. But what’s cool is i know in the end that God is with me thru it all, and i dont have to worry 🙂 The bible is truely amazing, and its a book filled with guidelines from God on how to live our lives!! (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth;)) i know i need to be more focused when i read because it is SO important! 🙂
i agree w/ mel soso much! that is something i really need 2 work on! Like the verse says,”be ye doers of the word,and not hearers only”.Thats another thing i need 2 work on.Whenever im reading the bible,most of the time im not a “doer of the word”.Sometimes i feel like reading the bible and going 2 church is like a checklist.Most of the time when i go 2 church,im listening and im reading the verses and think “this is a really good message” but i don’t apply it 2 my life cause i have a hard time doing it 😦 .i really need some help doing this.im praying that i can use his word in my life.Thats what i got out of reading this today.Hope u guys all had a great day at school!(i know i did! hehe! :)) Can’t wait 2 see u guys tonight!!!!! 🙂
Good stuff. I don’t always “do” what I read. And there are plenty of times where while I was reading I knew what I needed to do and didn’t do it. Not good. You could read a book about how to tie your shoelaces but if you didn’t actually try it then what good would it do. (weird ex. I know) God is more interested in how we apply his Word in our lives than just reading it. I need to work on this. Sometimes I guess I just don’t feel like it. When I do though, I see amazing things happen in my life. So why I am not consistent in this I don’t know. Good reminder. I love James.
I love James too! Very isightful disciple!
I remember a lot about what the bible says and like others have said I tend to “forget” what it says in some places. You know something weird, I have found myself on more than one occasion in a situation of temptation or sin and one of the first things that pops into my head is a bible verse or a song about what the bible says and it relates to what the sin is. I think that God brings back to memory things that we might have heard and forgotten in important times of trials and temptations. We should always apply what we hear but sometimes God brings a bible verse or story back to mind when we need it again. I think that Is a neat thing. It wouldn’t happen unless we had heard it the first time. Now this doesn’t mean that we are off the hook for applying the first time we hear but it’s neat how God can sometimes bring things back to memory when we need them again. I love how old the Bible is and how relivent it is to teens, kids and adults in 2011. God is so amazing!!!
its very practical, Apply what you read to your life. Its like you can sit down with bill gates and he can tell you how to be successful but until you apply what you learned its useless information.