Submission to the Word (2)

Hello everyone,

How are you doing on this day? I hope well and bubbling in the Lord.

Primary Text

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” (James 1v22-24, KJV)

“But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. ²³ For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.” (James 1v22-24, AMPC)

“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! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.” (James 1v22-24, MSG)

It is one thing to hear the Word of God, to know what God wants you to do, and another thing entirely to do it. One may say, Lord, I want to know Your will, I want to know Your way, reveal Your plans and purposes to me … but are you willing to do what He tells you to do? The text below shows a scenario of people saying they want to know the will of God, and yet when the word came, they refused to accept it. But how it pays to heed the Word of God. Proverbs 4v20-22 (AMPC) says “My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh.”

Supplementary Text

“Then all the military leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached² Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. ³ Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.” ⁴ “All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything He says. I will hide nothing from you.” ⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! ⁶ Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.” ⁷ Ten days later the Lord gave His reply to Jeremiah. … ¹⁹ “Listen, you remnant of Judah. The Lord has told you: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Don’t forget this warning I have given you today. ²⁰ For you were not being honest when you sent me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You said, ‘Just tell us what the Lord our God says, and we will do it!’ ²¹ And today I have told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey the Lord your God any better now than you have in the past. ²² So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going” …  The people refused to obey the voice of the Lord and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of Tahpanhes.” (Jeremiah 42v1-7, 19-22; 43v7, NLT)

Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the things that were written for us to learn from. Father, I ask for Your mercy and forgiveness in any way I have not obeyed You. I pray that I will do all of Your will all of the time in Jesus name, amen.