It's been a couple of weeks since I have added anything new, sometimes things get pretty crazy in our lives, huh? Anyway, thank you for reading these and sharing them with others.
This week, on many occassions, I have been reminded of a song that I learned many, many years ago. I have still sang and led this song on occasion, because it has so much truth in it. Here are the words:
In blessing we are blessed
And in loving we find love
In giving we receive
Everything from God above
It's in the doing of the Word
and not the hearing only
That makes it a reality
That's what living in the Kingdom
Is all about
For people like you and me.
Powerful!! There is so much packed into this little chorus.
When we look at the Scriptures, in James 1:22, from the New American Standard Bible version, it says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." Be a doer! Not just a hearer! Or do what you hear, don't just listen. See, anyone can listen to the Word, that takes no real effort on anyones part. But doing it is another story. Not that we have a struggle to do it, because HE has given us all the power we need to accomplish every task HE desires from us (Phillipians 4:13). No, the struggle is in the deciding, or choosing, to do it. We all have this "gift" of "selective hearing." We hear what we want to, and choose to ignore what we don't want to hear. This same scripture from 2 other translations says it this way. From the Good News Bible, "Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice." Also from The Message, "Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!"
All these sciptures talk about the fact that if we just hear, but don't do, we are deceiving ourselves, or fooling ourselves! Churches are full of people who are just hearing and not doing! I don't mean for that to sound condemning or condescending, but we all know it's true! Did you catch the fact that it says we are fooling ourselves! No one else is fooling us! Not even the enemy of our souls! We are fooling ourselves by just hearing and not doing! We have all said this little saying at one time or another, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!" If the Bible is true, and I believe it is, I hope you do too, then when it comes to the hearing and doing of the Word, if I am just hearing the Word, but not doing what it says, then I am fooling myself!!
As the chorus I shared with you says, when I bless someone else, then I am blessed in return. When I love someone else, then I am loved in return. When I give to someone else, then I receive in return. Much of our thought is that we want to receive before we give! We want the cart before the horse! We can't have a harvest until we have a planting of the seed! We can't eat apples until apple seeds are planted. We can't eat tomatoes until tomatoe seeds are planted. Someone must plant a seed, before there is a harvest!
Don't just hear HIS Word, but be a doer of HIS Word. Hear it and do it! I understand that we may all have different ideas as to what all that may mean, but let us all make up our minds we will not fool ourselves and just be a hearer!
