Please read part 1 , part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 , part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, and part 10 of this series before reading today’s post. Lots of reading, I know, but we’ve been unpacking a simple approach to hearing God speak through scripture that I believe can change your life.Do, do, do, do, do.
Five times a version of the word do comes up in James’ Bible Study course. Five times! That’s God’s way of saying, “Don’t miss this!”
So… Ask God for strength, and do what He has put on your heart to do. If you don’t take this step, you’re going to forget what you’ve learned and lose what you’ve gained. As James puts it,
“the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it… will be blessed in what he does.”
There’s a crystal clear connection here between “not forgetting” and “doing.” If you want to remember what you read, apply it to your life and put it into practice! A couple of years ago I was preaching on this passage in my church and I asked the congregation to raise their hands if they clearly remembered what our Lead Pastor preached about the week before (a true story, by the way). Five or six people out of six hundred put up their hands. Ouch. And it was a decent sermon.
“How many of you put last Sunday’s message into practice?” was my next question. And pretty much the same half dozen put up their hands. No surprise, though—because remembering is inexorably linked to doing. James knows what he’s talking about.
Not only that, but notice where the blessing comes. Not in the looking. Not in the listening, as exciting as it is to hear God speak. Not in the memorizing, word studies, “aha” moments, or in the journaling. It comes in the doing. Living it out. Putting it into motion. Giving it flesh.
You want an exciting Bible?
Look, look, look, look.
Listen, listen, listen.
Do, do, do, do, do.
Period.
No shortcuts. No cheating. No exception.
Always remember as you study scripture, no matter what you’re reading… there’s an app for that.
😉
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