Scripture instructs us not to miss the gathering of ourselves together as believers (Hebrews 10:25), yet someone says “I can’t make it to the mid-week services because that’s when I do my laundry.” Such a person is definitely deceiving himself for not doing what the Word says.
Apostle James explains what it means for one to deceive his own self: it means to be a hearer of the Word, but not a doer of it. To hear God’s Word and not do what it says is to act like the man who looks at his face in the mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like once he turns away. Sadly, some Christians have gotten stuck in a rut because they deceive themselves this way—they hear the Word, but don’t do it. So they keep turning around in circles.
Doing the Word is the secret of success. Jesus likened the man who hears the Word and puts it to work to a wise man: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). To hear God’s Word or to know the scriptures and not do what it says is like shooting one’s self in the foot (Matthew 7:26-27). Don’t just be a hearer of the Word. Make up your mind to do it as well! That’s where the blessing is!
Prayer
Dear Father, thank you for the entrance of your Word into my spirit that gives me light and understanding! I’m not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the Word; therefore, my profiting—peace, progress and prosperity—as a result of doing the Word is evident to all, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
