Are You a Doer of the Word?
Luke 6:46. "But why do you call Me `Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?”
When you are born again, you become a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things have become new.
You are new, your spirit has been recreated in the image of God. God’s nature dwells in you. God’s nature is love. If God’s nature dwells in you, then you are full of the love of God! We should walk in that love, everyday!
However, there is more to being a Christian, than going around loving everyone.
We are to do the commandments of the Lord.
James 1:22-25: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
James is writing to believers in this letter, not unsaved people.
He is telling them to be blessed, they must do what the Word, God’s Word, says.
Yes, we must walk in love toward everyone, our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as our enemies. Yet, we have to do so much more.
Let’s look at what God said to Joshua when he took over the leadership of Israel, after the death of Moses.
Joshua 1:8: "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Are you studying God’s Word? Is it a priority in your life. Do you read it daily and meditate on, think about, what you have read? Are you speaking God’s Word in your life? Remember, God tells Joshua the Word shall not depart from his mouth, as well as telling him to meditate in it day and night, He is to speak scriptures to himself, to remind him what the Word says.
Jesus says in Luke 6:46, that we are to keep his commandments if we love Him.
Is God first in your life, or is your job, your family, your car, money - the things you worship? One way to tell what you actually worship ( whether it is a good or bad worship) is to look at your life. What do you think about, talk about or worry about. If it is not God, then you need to reorganize your thinking. God and His Word should be first in your life. The wonderful working of Jesus at Calvary should be first in your life.
Matthew 6:31-33: “"Therefore do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
When you are obedient to God, He will bless you. It is as simple as that.
Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
1 Peter 5:7: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
Are you trusting in God with all your heart, are you casting your cares ( worries, concerns) on Him? Or are you praying “Oh God help me, I can’t make it another day, if You don’t do something.”
Understand this! God has done all He can for you! He gave His only Son to die in your place. With that death, He purchased a new life for you. A life full of God’s answers!
You need to study the Word and find those answers and then claim them for yourself!
Romans 8:14: “ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
When you were saved, you became a child of God! This means you have the rights and responsibility of any member of a family. It is up to you to take advantage of these rights.
How do I do that? Go back to what God told Joshua, read the Word, meditate on it and don’t let it depart from your mouth. Let me ask you something - are you looking at your life and your problems from the world’s view or God’s view? Are you saying the world’s answers or God’s answers? To trust completely in God and to lean not on your own wisdom and experience means looking at God’s way - not your way! His way may not seem logical or natural, but Praise God that’s what it is all about! The way of the spirit, the way of God, not the way of nature or reason!
“Well, I tried that once and it didn’t work.” Can you hear yourself saying this?
There are several problems with this:
- You The truth is, you were tried by the Word of God. We have all been there.
We need to learn from our failures as well as our successes, and then hopefully we won’t have as many failures .
Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.”
You hear the Word, the Will or commandments of God and you act in faith and do them, not try them!
Hebrews 11:1: “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead .”
The Revised Standard Translation of this verse says “NOW FAITH”. Now Faith!
Faith is always, always in the present, the now!
So, to trust completely in the ability of God to answer your prayers, meet your needs, is to believe now, that it will happen.
Faith is the tangibility of hope, It makes hope real. Faith makes what you hope for come about.
- You gave your problems to God - but - you took them back!
You didn’t see the answer in the way you thought it should be, or in the time frame you thought it should happen and you gave up. You leaned on your own understanding and not God’s!
The prophet Isaiah tells us that God’s ways are not our ways. Your ways are controlled by the world. And who is the god of this world - Satan, not God. So if you think God should answer your problems your way, then you are asking God to do something in a way that is impossible for Him to do.
3.You did not pray correctly.
James 4:3: “or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.”
Another reason trusting in God did not seem to work for you, is because when you prayed, you ask for the wrong reasons. If you asked out of selfish reasons, because it was something in your favor or for your good only - then you need to re-examine your prayers. Let God show you through His Word the true way to pray. It is very simple, if you walk in love then what you pray for will not be self-serving, but giving, meeting all needs not just yours.
Remember when you throw a pebble in a small pond, it makes many ripples, not just one.
What you pray for will affect others as well as yourself, it always does.
The key to being a “doer of the Word” is love. Love is the glue that holds it all together.
It is the power that activates faith and generosity. It is the fulfillment of all the previous commandments.
You won’t have to try to keep the Ten Commandments when you have God’s love in you. God’s love makes it impossible to break them. It makes it impossible not to trust God and lean on Him, because when His love pours out of you - You will put Him first in Your life!
Let me leave you with a few thought:
Put God first in your life. Meditate on God’s Word. Learn how it will impact your life and answer you needs. Pray for others, not just yourself. Loving means getting your eyes off your needs and on to someone else needs. The Word tells us to pray for each other.
Put what you learn into practice. Everyday, one step at a time. In everything give thanks.
Pray without ceasing. Rejoice evermore! Amen!
If you want to know for sure that you are a child of God, then I would like to invite you to earnestly pray this prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Your word says, “…and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (Jn.6:37), So I know You won’t cast me out, but You take me in, And I thank you for it. You said in your Word, "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'' (Ro. 10:13).
I am calling on Your name, So I know You have saved me now, You also said, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” (Ro.10:9,10).
I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification. And I confess Him now as my Lord, Because Your Word says, “… with the heart one believes to righteousness…” and I do believe with my heart, I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),
And I am saved! Thank You, Lord!
I can now truthfully say, I see myself as a born again child of God!
Glory to God!!!! Amen.