Mary Kane blessed us with an incredibly important Bible Study yesterday on James 1:21-15. For me, it was also a tough topic – being a doer of God’s Word, not just a hearer. I find it much easier to read or hear Scripture and hope it works some “magic” in me, changing me as I listen. The fact is, and as Mary’s study points out, the more time I spend in the Bible the more I realize that God expects me to do the sometimes hard work of living out my faith. There are times in life when we come to a fork in the road and have to decide if we are going act in faith or not.
What does it look like to be a doer of the work (verse 25) when your child has a serious illness? We must begin by looking at our own “filthiness and overflow of wickedness” (verse 21), as my New King James Version puts it. Sometimes, when we read such strong words, it can be easy to think, “I’m not that bad!” When asked to describe ourselves, I don’t think many of us would say, “I’m overflowing with wickedness.” Let’s read a couple of different versions to help us get a clearer picture of what James was talking about…
So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
~ The Message
Put out of your life all that is unclean and wrong. Receive with a gentle spirit the Word that was taught. It has the power to save your souls from the punishment of sin.
~ New Life Version
Has the enemy whispered to you that God doesn’t really care, or that He can’t help you? Has he predicted evil and darkness over your child’s life? Has he condemned you with the lie that God is silent and/or causing this because you are too sinful? It is wrong, a cancerous evil, and, yes, wicked to believe the enemy’s lies over our Father’s promises and truths.
Once we begin treating his lies as truth and let it haunt our minds, we open the door to more filth – fear, doubts about God and His goodness or power, avoiding God because our sinfulness overwhelms us and makes us wrongly afraid of Him, trusting man (doctors) more than we trust God. Have you said or heard someone else say, “If God is loving, why did He let this (children starving in Africa, Hitler slaughter millions of Jews, my child’s illness, etc.) happen?” Doesn’t that question sound familiar? (Underlining is mine.)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
~ Genesis 3:1, New International Version
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
~ Matthew 4:3, New King James Version
and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and,‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
~ Matthew 4:6, New King James Version
It may very well be your biggest work as a Christian to daily reject those lies and practice living the truth.
Our enemy is clever, his lies are mixed with small doses of truth. Every question he asks, every statement he makes is designed to plant a seed of doubt that he knows will grow rapidly. If we do not keep that seed from taking root in our souls, he has successfully made us hearers of the word only. We can not be doers of God’s word and His kingdom works because we are too afraid of God and the future. It may very well be your biggest work as a Christian to daily reject those lies and practice living the truth.
My prayer is that as you read this article, you will hear God’s word for you and not the enemy’s because I fearfully understand that he could use this post to heap guilt onto you. May you be free from any false-guilt that is not yours to carry, but may He shine His healing light on any sin He wants to help you remove.
I’d like to leave you with some verses to help you to begin, right now, to reject the lies of our enemy. I encourage you to keep track of the promises and truths of God as you find them in your own Bible readings. Jot them done on index cards or a page in your journal, anywhere that’s easy for you to read often.
(In speaking to the Jews who did not believe in Him, Jesus said,) You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
~ John 8:44, New King James Version
But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
~ Psalm 31:14, NKJV
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
~ John 4:8, NKJV
O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
~ Isaiah 25:1, NKJV
In His Love,
Kimberly
kimberly@kimberlyehlers.com
