"Do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22
I came upon this verse today highlighted and underlined in my bible, but yet I never remember reading it ever before today. And it was one of those, smack in the face, kind of things.
I was at Youth Convention this past weekend, and the speakers last message was titled, "Don't just stand there...... DO SOMETHING." (I'll come back to this in a minute...)
And I had that statement, and entire message in my head in a second when I read this verse. It basically says to not just LISTEN to the word of God, or just READ it. But to DO it. To LIVE it.
"Do what it says." Read that through a few times. It doesn't say, Try to do what it says. Or, When you want to, do what it says. That is a command. "Do what is says." You know, when your parents tell you to do something instead of asking. Like, they don't always say... "Can you please go clean your room?" It usually sounds more like, "Go clean your room, please." We usually go and do it when there is a period there instead of a question mark. Kinda like this verse. What if it said.... "Could you do what it said, please?" I personally don't think it would've have that slap in the face affect like the real verse does.
How many times DO we just read our Bibles, and sometimes get a lot of encouraging things out of it, or maybe even something that we needed to hear. But we don't act on it. We just tuck it away inside of us for when we need it again. Don't let the bible be a go-to book for help. I mean, it's great for that, and definitely something you can go to in times of trouble and hard ships, but what would happen if we made it more of a life guide. If we actually starting living out what we learned that day, or that week. What if we all started doing the things God asks of us in the Bible. Things would be different. We would be different. And those around us would be different. Different in the best way possible.
So I'm going to simply leave you with this question.
Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to do something?
