In the moments just before I woke this morning, this thought overwhelmed me. While it could have come from the books I’m reading (Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman and the Book of James), I sense it was more Spirit led. I say this because the same message came through in my devotional and the study I opened up this morning. To me that is confirmation that God is trying to tell me something.
The thought that overwhelmed me is quite simple “Be a Doer Not just a Learner”. I am one to learn; to read; to study everything I can on something I am passionate about. Yet, what does all that studying mean if that is all I do with it? I can read all the books on cooking I want, but if I never pick up a pot and pan and try something I am just knowledge. What is knowledge without action?
This is much the same when it comes to God and the Bible. I can study and read the Bible cover to cover over and over, read all the books from authors like Joyce Meyer and Louie Giglio, memorize scripture, and watch service after service. But what does it mean if that is all I do? If I am just a learner and not a doer, have I really learned anything?
I was reminded that, as James tells us in James 1:22, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves.” NKJV Also written, “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.” James 1:22-25 NIV
As I have told people when they have asked why the Book of James is my favorite, it is simply that it convicts me. It challenges me to look at my motivation. Am I doing something for me or for God’s glory? Am I all learning without doing? Am I all judgement and no mercy? Am I humble? Are my “yes’s Yes and my No’s no?
There is a lot packed into the pages of James. It’s not a long Epistle (letter), but it is one that challenges the heart of the Christian. My encouragement to you is to read James. Ask the Holy Spirit if you are being a learner/hearer of the word only? Or are you a doer of the Word putting it into practice?
From “100 Days of Joy and Strength”, Candace Cameron Bure, “To be a true doer of the Word means to act on the full knowledge of what we’ve read and heard. Anything less, says James, and we are only deceiving ourselves”
I leave you with this that I wrote in my devotional this morning; “I can know all the Bible knowledge, but if I forget it {don’t put it into action}in my life than I actually know nothing”
Faith Grows Faith 