Thought for week ending 8August 2025

 

James 1:22-25

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

 ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ 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 heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

Over the years, most of us will have heard God’s word many times.  From our school days, from our time in church youth organisations right through to the times we have attended services of worship or maybe weddings, baptisms or funerals that have been held in a Christian church or maybe on tv, on radio or online.

Today’s reading tells us clearly that hearing the word just isn’t enough.  The Word of God is something that should bring us to make changes in our lives.  It should make us change the way we think, change the ways we spend our time and change the way we deal with those we know and those with whom we come into contact in our day to day lives.

Change is sometimes portrayed by some so-called experts as a very challenging thing to achieve but I do not agree that this is necessarily the case in all instances.  Not that long ago, we were all forced to make changes in our lives due to the Covid Pandemic.  These changes were not optional, these were changes to our day-to-day activities that we had to comply with and most of us did and made life safer for all those around us as a result.

I believe that most of us who have benefited from a Christian upbringing or Christian teaching carry an awareness when they find themselves in a situation when they have a choice to make.  That awareness, some might call it a conscience, means we know when a decision we make would meet with God’s approval and we also know of the decisions we are tempted to make that would not meet with that approval.  The final step is to make the correct decision and stand by it, knowing you have done the right thing.

To hear the Word of God and not take it into account in our daily lives means that hearing it has been a waste of our time and a waste of God’s time.  But if we hear it, remember it and act upon it, our reading today tells us that God himself will give us his blessing, and our lives will be spiritually enriched as a result.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reminder to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and our hearts focussed on the truth of your Word.  We thank you that we are no longer under the curse of the law of sin and death but have been set free to follow the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.  As we look to Him, we pray that we may become increasingly like Him and that  we may not only hear your truth but act on it in word and in deed.  This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen (with thanks to knowing-jesus.com)