A few months ago, right before I met Isaac, the Lord put the book of James on my heart. I'd read it before in the past, but that time around, the Lord showed me things that I didn't see in the past. It was encouraging and convicting in the best ways possible, and it prepared me for what was to come in ways I never could have understood at the time.
See, two days before the wedding, the Lord put Psalm 119 on my heart. It showed up in multiple places, and I read it from start to finish that day. This chapter, for those who do not know, is about loving and reverencing the Word of God. Weeks before, I had written my wedding vows, and in my vows, I promised Isaac "to make our home a place where Scripture is studied, celebrated, and reverenced." The Lord was showing me the importance and seriousness of the promise I was about to make two days later, and it all connected back to when I studied the book of James.
With all that being said, what I want to talk about today is James 1:22 in particular, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
Now, I ask you: are you just a hearer of the word or are you also a doer of the word?
Does your life reflect obedience to the Word of God?
I think so often we are hearing the Word; we're reading it, we're hearing it at church, & we may even be highlighting it to look all pretty in our Bibles. But the real question is, are we actually applying it to our lives?
A lot of what I got from the Book of James is that true faith in Christ is followed by obedience to Christ. That's not to say that we are to be perfect (we literally can't be perfect & that's why we need a Savior), but it is to say that when we have truly been born again & the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, He brings about fruit in our lives.
James 2:17 famously says, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
What this means is that if we truly have faith in Jesus, there will be obedience to His commandments in our lives as evidence of that faith.
Jesus said in John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." This verse isn't talked about that much. I think that is because there are plenty of people who will say with their words that they love Jesus, but much, much less people will say that they love Jesus with their actions.
I don't know about you, but I want my words and actions to line up. I want to be a doer of the word. I want those around me to be able to look at my life and see obedience. I want the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in my life, day to day.
I'm challenging myself along with all of you: may we as followers of Jesus live our lives in obedience the best way that we can (and have peace knowing His grace will be right there to catch us when we fall).
When I wrote my vows, I wasn't really thinking back to months before when I studied the book of James and God put this thought on my heart, but I see now that He was showing me right before I met Isaac that I didn't need to just make our home a place where Scripture was studied, celebrated, and reverenced. It needed to be a place where Scripture was obeyed, and may that be true of all of our homes and lives.
(And as you can see, I like to highlight my Bible all pretty too). :)
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