Greetings, knowledge aficionados!
Remember the illustration of the parents telling the child to clean her room, and the child memorizes the command, analyzes the syntax, and even makes a study guide, but not actually cleaning the room? The Bible said:
22Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
James 1:22–24 (NLT)
The point of this amusing anecdote is to remind us that it’s not enough to simply hear and understand God’s Word; we need to put it into action. James encourages us to be doers of the Word, avoiding the pitfall of being like the person who looks in a mirror and then forgets their reflection (James 1:23-24). So, how do we avoid becoming the forgetful listener and the “study guide” Christian?
Here are a couple of pointers:
- Don’t treat the Bible like an academic textbook to be dissected and analyzed. Instead, approach it as a practical guidebook for life, filled with instructions on how to live out our faith. And remember, no pop quizzes here – just real-life applications!
- As you read the Word, don’t just focus on memorizing verses or understanding complex theological concepts. Ask yourself, “How does this apply to me, right here, right now?” Then, once you’ve found a personal connection, you’ll be more likely to remember and put the lesson into action. It’s like tying a spiritual string around your finger – you won’t forget it as easily.
By focusing on both understanding and applying God’s Word, we can dodge the fate of the “study guide” Christian and the forgetful listener. Instead, we’ll become doers who live out our faith in tangible, meaningful ways.
So, fellow knowledge aficionados, are you ready to go beyond the “study guide” and truly live out your faith?
What’s one practical way you can put your faith into action today, oh wise one?
That video is good, funny, and great reminder🤣 today I will focus on Gods blessings and be positive and loving towards those around me. 🙏🏻❤️
One practical way we can put our faith into action is simply taking the initial step. A lot of times we get overwhelmed in the overall enormity of a task and forget it takes just a simple step of faith. As we trust God, I think we come to see the benefit of following God’s Word and this becomes a reinforcing action to build upon. It’s like the Chinese proverb that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, we can do the same with putting our faith into action.
I thoroughly enjoyed the video, thanks Bumble. As for implementing a practical way that will put my faith into action would be to reach out to my non Christian friends and spend time with them and share with them my faith. I think often times, I find myself holding back because of fear of judgement. I also find myself trying to be relatable and say things that are not Christian like. I think I need to start holding myself accountable and use my words to honor God. It’s definitely more challenging to be a good listener who applies what they learned into their daily lives over a passionate listener who, like how the video was exemplifying, do everything but apply what they learned. With this day and age, it’s especially difficult to voice certain things out of fear but I need to live more like Jesus and trust in God’s provision for me.
(from Maury)
Good morning brothers … I would like to say that I today “put my self in the other man’s shoes” . That’s really one of the ways that God works in me and I use that to put my work into action… I feel real young and fresh in my recovery but I’m Not in a rush either everything happens in God’s time…
This video was really understandable for me. Thank you Bumble! The one practical way I can put my faith into action today is rethinking about things what I learned from bible study and spending time with family around me. I also learned that just reading, listening to and understanding are not enough. I have only just begun to learn, so it is pretty hard for me to take action like this, but I would like to start with what I can do!