Reflection

One of the questions on a recent WordPress “tag” was, “How many times a day do you look in the mirror?”  The tag wasn’t sent to me, but I took the time to answer it for myself. Unless there’s a mirror over the sink, I don’t make many efforts to look, but by the end of the day, when I catch my reflection, I probably should have checked a time or two!

After you’ve looked in the mirror, do you forget what you look like?  Probably not on a physical level, but spiritually speaking, it is possible to forget.

The Bible says if anyone listens to God’s Word and doesn’t do what he hears, he is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he sees.

James 1:22 stresses the need to act on what we hear. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can be hearers only and not doers of the Word.

A careless listener lets God’s Word go in one ear and out the other, never allowing the truth to penetrate his heart while the earnest man hears and absorbs God’s Word, taking it into his heart and letting it change his life.

God’s Word is meant to change us (Psalm 119:11 and John 17:17). We can sit in church for years, listening to sermon after sermon, and we can read the Bible from cover to cover. Still, unless we allow the Word to change us and put its commands into practice, we have deceived ourselves into believing that we can be hearers and not doers of the Word.

The Bible is not a piece of literature, it is the Word of God.  It demands a change of heart that prompts a shift in behavior and attitudes. The Word of God is to be obeyed.

But don’t just listen to God’s Word.

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourself.

For if you listen to the word and don’t obey,

It is like glancing at your face in a mirror.

You see yourself,

Walk away,

And forget when you look like.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free,

And if you do what it says

And don’t forget what you have heard

Then God will bless you for doing it.  James 1:22-25

 

 

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