Doers and Not Hearers Only

I'm back! ... My feet were a bit more sore than I realized. You see, when I stopped to think about my loved ones and how they might view me I started hedging. Because...

It is easier to look outward than inward. I have reasons for my treatment of my family. I know what is best for them, right? 

Not really.

There are too many variables. We my have a general idea, but can we actually say we really know how they feel, what they are thinking, what happened to them before that influences their decisions, etc.?

Even if we say 'they told us,' how many of us are really good at knowing what is really bothering us? Something may have tipped the iceberg to cause us to react a certain way, but all that is underneath--background, health, finances, etc. has a bearing on our emotions and thinking ability. So we struggle and ask God to help and forgive us and then turn around and expect our family or friends or others to walk the road perfectly.

So you see why my toes were a little more than sore. They throbbed. I found that I needed to pray more for my loved ones and others to be able to progress and endure just as I needed their prayers.

That is why our Creator called the "Hearer of prayer" wants us to "pray for one another. " Psalm 65:2; James 5:16.

So, we must try a little harder to close the gap between saying and doing. Pray to follow James' counsel at James 1:21, 22:

"Therefore, put away all filthiness and every trace of badness, and accept with mildness the implanting of the word that is able to save you. However, become doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning."

Ouch again! ... See what I mean!? ... Almost makes you want to keep the Bible closed, right? ... Do I really need these kind of reminders when it is enough that I am trying to do all that I can to make it through these turbulent times?

Really...do I need this? ...

Yes. The end result means happiness.

James said this here:

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, and he goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he is. But the one who peers into the perfect law that belongs to freedom and continues in it has become,  not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; and he will be happy in what he does." James 1:23, 24.

I guess I will be back later. Have a bit more meditating to do :-)